Building application of solar energy. Study no. 4: Scenarios for the utilization of solar energy in southern California buildings, change 1

Plausible future market scenarios for solar heating and cooling systems into buildings in the area served by the Southern California Edison Company. A range of plausible estimates for the number of solar systems which might be installed and the electrical energy which might be displaced by energy from these systems are provided. The effect on peak electrical load was not explicitly calculated but preliminary conclusions concerning peak load can be inferred from the estimates presented. Two markets are investigated: the single family market and the large power commercial market

A Statistical Analysis to Improve Public Perception of a State University\u27s Police Department

This paper addresses the question How friendly is the University Police Department? (UPD). This question was included in a survey given to 792 students at a Midwestern State university in October 2002 and was conducted by the university\u27s Introduction to Criminal Justice class. Survey results indicated that 35% of the survey respondents said that UPD was not very friendly 27.9% indicated UPD was somewhat friendly 18.8% indicated UPD was never friendly, and 3.7% indicated UPD was very friendly. The rest of the respondents (14.7%) did not respond to the question. The proposed program recommendation outlined in this paper were developed in an effort to improve student perception of UPD. Program recommendations include the addition of a six-credit, two-semester class to the required curriculum for a Criminal Justice minor at the university, formation of a student-police association modeled after the Boy Scouts of America Explorers Program, creation of a UPD web page, and the acquisition of a surplus vehicle to provide safe and sober rides home for students who have consumed alcohol

DEveloping a Complex Intervention for DEteriorating Patients using Theoretical Modelling (DECIDE study): study protocol

AIM: To develop a theory-based complex intervention (targeting nursing staff), to enhance enablers and overcome barriers to enacting expected behaviour when monitoring patients and responding to abnormal vital signs that signal deterioration. DESIGN: A mixed method design including structured observations on hospital wards, field notes, brief, un-recorded interviews and semi-structured interviews to inform the development of an intervention to enhance practice. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with nursing staff using a topic guide informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework. Semi-structured interviews will be transcribed verbatim and coded deductively into the 14 Theoretical Domains Framework domains and then inductively into 'belief statements'. Priority domains will be identified and mapped to appropriate behaviour change techniques. Intervention content and mode of delivery (how behaviour change techniques are operationalised) will be developed using nominal groups, during which participants (clinicians) will rank behaviour change techniques /mode of delivery combinations according to acceptability and feasibility. Findings will be synthesised to develop an intervention manual. DISCUSSION: Despite being a priority for clinicians, researchers and policymakers for two decades, 'sub-optimal care' of the deteriorating ward patient persists. Existing interventions have been largely educational (i.e., targeting assumed knowledge deficits) with limited evidence that they change staff behaviour. Staff behaviour when monitoring and responding to abnormal vital signs is likely influenced by a range of mediators that includes barriers and enablers. IMPACT: Systematically applying theory and evidence-based methods, will result in the specification of an intervention which is more likely to result in behaviour change and can be tested empirically in future research. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

La distribución del ingreso en Chile : deuda pendiente

La economía chilena afronta el gran desafío para reducir sistemáticamente la concentración de su riqueza. A pesar de que durante los dieciséis años de la dictadura de Pinochet, de 1974 a 1989, el crecimiento de PBI, fue de 2.9 % y, en un período similar, en los dieciséis años de democracia, de 1990 a 2005, fue del 5.6 %, la distribución de la riqueza permanece sumamente regresiva. Ha habido una mejora moderada reciente, en lo que concierne a stepback social, en los años 1980, pero todavía estamos ante el duro desafío de reducir la gran brecha entre ricos y pobres, que es dos veces superior a la que tienen los países de economías desarrolladas. Chile hoy está mejor preparado para afrontar este desafío, que requiere una mejora de la calidad de política macroeconómica y un refuerzo de la productividad en el trabajo y de las medianas y pequeñas y empresas.The Chilean economy faces the great challenge to reduce systematically a deep income concentration. Notwithstanding a sharp improvement in GDP growth, from 2.9% during the sixteen-year of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1974-89, to 5.6% in a similar sixteenyear period in democracy in 1990-2005, income distribution remains extremely regressive. A moderate recent improvement with respect to the social stepback in the 1980s, still leaves a severe challenge of reducing the gap between rich and poor that is twice the equity gap prevailing in developed economies. Chile today is better prepared to face this challenge, what requires improving the quality of macroeconomic policies and strengthening the productivity of labor and of small and medium-sized firms

La distribución del ingreso en Chile : deuda pendiente

La economía chilena afronta el gran desafío para reducir sistemáticamente la concentración de su riqueza. A pesar de que durante los dieciséis años de la dictadura de Pinochet, de 1974 a 1989, el crecimiento de PBI, fue de 2.9 % y, en un período similar, en los dieciséis años de democracia, de 1990 a 2005, fue del 5.6 %, la distribución de la riqueza permanece sumamente regresiva. Ha habido una mejora moderada reciente, en lo que concierne a stepback social, en los años 1980, pero todavía estamos ante el duro desafío de reducir la gran brecha entre ricos y pobres, que es dos veces superior a la que tienen los países de economías desarrolladas. Chile hoy está mejor preparado para afrontar este desafío, que requiere una mejora de la calidad de política macroeconómica y un refuerzo de la productividad en el trabajo y de las medianas y pequeñas y empresas.The Chilean economy faces the great challenge to reduce systematically a deep income concentration. Notwithstanding a sharp improvement in GDP growth, from 2.9% during the sixteen-year of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1974-89, to 5.6% in a similar sixteenyear period in democracy in 1990-2005, income distribution remains extremely regressive. A moderate recent improvement with respect to the social stepback in the 1980s, still leaves a severe challenge of reducing the gap between rich and poor that is twice the equity gap prevailing in developed economies. Chile today is better prepared to face this challenge, what requires improving the quality of macroeconomic policies and strengthening the productivity of labor and of small and medium-sized firms

Implementation of musculoskeletal Models of Care in primary care settings: Theory, practice, evaluation and outcomes for musculoskeletal health in high-income economies

Musculoskeletal conditions represent one of the largest causes of years lived with disability in high-income economies. These conditions are predominantly managed in primary care settings, and yet, there is a paucity of evidence on which approaches work well in increasing the uptake of best practice and in closing the evidence-to-practice gap. Increasingly, musculoskeletal models of service delivery (as components of models of care) such as integrated care, stratified care and therapist-led care have been tested in primary health care pathways for joint pain in older adults, for low back pain and for arthritis. In this chapter, we discuss why implementation of these models is important for primary care and how models are implemented using three case examples: we review implementation theory, principles and outcomes; we consider the role of health economic evaluation; and we propose key evidence gaps in this field. We propose the following research priorities for this area: investigating the generalisability of models of care across, for example, urban and rural settings, and for different musculoskeletal conditions; increasing support for self-management; understanding the importance of context in choosing a model of care; detailing how implementation has been undertaken; and evaluation of implementation and its impact

Fibronectin and Cyclic Strain Improve Cardiac Progenitor Cell Regenerative Potential In Vitro.

Cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) have rapidly advanced to clinical trials, yet little is known regarding their interaction with the microenvironment. Signaling cues present in the microenvironment change with development and disease. This work aims to assess the influence of two distinct signaling moieties on CPCs: cyclic biaxial strain and extracellular matrix. We evaluate four endpoints for improving CPC therapy: paracrine signaling, proliferation, connexin43 expression, and alignment. Vascular endothelial growth factor A (about 900 pg/mL) was secreted by CPCs cultured on fibronectin and collagen I. The application of mechanical strain increased vascular endothelial growth factor A secretion 2-4-fold for CPCs cultured on poly-L-lysine, laminin, or a naturally derived cardiac extracellular matrix. CPC proliferation was at least 25% higher on fibronectin than that on other matrices, especially for lower strain magnitudes. At 5% strain, connexin43 expression was highest on fibronectin. With increasing strain magnitude, connexin43 expression decreased by as much as 60% in CPCs cultured on collagen I and a naturally derived cardiac extracellular matrix. Cyclic mechanical strain induced the strongest CPC alignment when cultured on fibronectin or collagen I. This study demonstrates that culturing CPCs on fibronectin with 5% strain magnitude is optimal for their vascular endothelial growth factor A secretion, proliferation, connexin43 expression, and alignment

Special Theory of Relativity through the Doppler Effect

We present the special theory of relativity taking the Doppler effect as the starting point, and derive several of its main effects, such as time dilation, length contraction, addition of velocities, and the mass-energy relation, and assuming energy and momentum conservation, we discuss how to introduce the 4-momentum in a natural way. We also use the Doppler effect to explain the "twin paradox", and its version on a cylinder. As a by-product we discuss Bell's spaceship paradox, and the Lorentz transformation for arbitrary velocities in one dimension.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Slice-illuminated optical projection tomography

To improve the imaging performance of optical projection tomography (OPT) in live samples, we have explored a parallelized implementation of semi-confocal line illumination and detection to discriminate against scattered photons. Slice-illuminated OPT (sl-OPT) improves reconstruction quality in scattering samples by reducing interpixel crosstalk at the cost of increased acquisition time. For in vivo imaging, this can be ameliorated through the use of compressed sensing on angularly undersampled OPT data sets. Here, we demonstrate sl-OPT applied to 3D imaging of bead phantoms and live adult zebrafish