The Design, Construction, and Performance of a Net Zero Home in the Solar Decathlon 2011

The Solar Decathlon is a biennial Department of Energy (DOE) collegiate contest to “promote and speed to market” solar powered, residential homes (Grose, 2009). It is a student competition wherein twenty universities are selected to design, build, and showcase residential structures that would ultimately be relocated to a competition campus in West Potomac Park in Washington D.C. to be viewed by the general public and judged by representatives of the DOE. The challenge is “design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive” (DOE). The project structures are homes that are designed and built to conform to the parameters set forth by the DOE in an effort to showcase the use of solar power as a practical means of residential line voltage power supply. The projects are then judged according to how well they performed within those parameters. The challenges involved in the design and construction of a “net- zero” house, that is a house that produces at least as much electricity as it consumes, were formidable. Equally formidable were the technical/logistical issues inherent in designing and constructing a building that could be disassembled and transported. Finally, reconstructing a residential dwelling, complete in all respects, in the allotted time period of seven days created educational opportunities that mirror conditions the construction manager will face in his or her professional life. Multidiscipline work groups analyzed the architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, building controls, and photovoltaic performance requirements. These systems not only had to be integrated within each other, but they also had to work within a tight construction budget and build schedule. Those requirements are challenging enough on a normal construction project. Added to the complexity is that the INhome had to be built on the Purdue campus and then shipped to the competition site in Washington D.C. This paper highlights the process and strategies that Team Purdue utilized to design, build, operate, move, and successfully compete in the Solar Decathlon 2011 with a net zero home

The Learning Styles of Undergraduate Students in CM Bachelor’s Degree Programs in the U.S.

This article presents the findings of a study analyzing the learning styles of undergraduate construction management (CM) students in bachelor’s degree programs in the United States. The study utilized the Felder-Silverman model and the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) as a survey instrument. The survey population consisted of 1,069 CM students from 36 university CM programs across the Associated Schools of Construction regions. Demographic information, the raw ILS responses, and the ILS web-based survey report were collected from the students. The results were analyzed and compared to both the CM students themselves and to similar studies done with engineering students. It was found that CM students were visual, active, sensing, and sequential learners. This study provides recommendations for how CM instructors might align their teaching styles with CM-student learning styles, and discusses impacts on the CM industry

Toward A Zero Energy Home: Applying Swiss Building Practices/Attitudes to U.S. Residential Construction

This project evaluated typical U.S. and Swiss homes to identify construction practices that are most energy efficient and have economic payback. A net zero energy home (ZEH) produces as much energy as is consumed in it over time. Students in a College o f Technology in a Midwest Indiana State University and a technical University in Switzerland resulted in developing models of homes that combined U.S. and Swiss standards. The project was completed in two phases: during the first phase o f this project, construction costs, energy use, and economic payback was calculated for six homes that were designed using both Swiss and U.S. standards. During the second phase of the project, cultural norms that influence energy use were explored. A survey was used to compare U.S. and Swiss college students’ lifestyles and energy habits. All homes had the same basic size and layout, but some used construction practices typical for the United States and others were designed according to Swiss guidelines for residential construction. The results of the study showed that a Swiss-style low-energy home is not cost effective for the Midwestern United States if energy costs remain low, but it could become attractive if energy rates escalate significantly. It was also recognized that technology by itself will not minimize energy consumption, a result o f the second part o f the project that explored cultural norms that influence energy use. From the survey of both U.S. and Swiss college students’ lifestyles and energy habits, it was revealed with a high level of confidence that Swiss students are more energy conscious than their U.S. counterparts

Three-year movement patterns of adult desert tortoises at Yucca Mountain

We studied the home-range size and site fidelity of adult desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, during 1992-1994. Of 67 adult tortoises monitored at Yucca Mountain during this period, we evaluated the movements of 22 female and 16 male radiomarked tortoises that were located >50 times during each of the 1992, 1993, and 1994 activity seasons. We measured annual and three-year home range sizes by either 100% minimum convex polygon (MCP) or by 95% cluster

Agroecología, soberanía alimentaria y la nueva revolución verde

In the face of recurrent global food crises, institutions of the corporate food regime propose a new Green Revolution coupled with a continuation of neoliberal economic policies. Because these are causes of the crises to begin with, this approach can worsen rather than end hunger. Building a countermovement depends in part on forging strong strategic alliances between agroecology and food sovereignty. Agroecologists face important choices between reformist and radical versions of agroecology. The former version attempts to co-opt agroecology into the Green Revolution; the latter centers agroecology within a politically transformative peasant movement for food sovereignty.Frente a la crisis alimentaria global recurrente, las instituciones del régimen corporativo alimentario proponen una nueva Revolución Verde acompañada por la continuación de las políticas económicas neoliberales. En tanto que, para empezar, éstas son causas de las crisis, este enfoque puede empeorar el problema del hambre, en lugar de resolverlo. Construir un contramovimiento depende en parte de la formación de fuertes alianzas estratégicas entre la agroecología y la soberanía alimentaria. Los agroecólogos se enfrentan a decisiones importantes entre versiones reformistas y radicales de la agroecología. La primera versión intenta cooptar la agroecología a la Revolución Verde; la segunda sitúa la agroecología dentro de un movimiento campesino políticamente transformador que busca la soberanía alimentaria

The very large G-protein coupled receptor VLGR1: a component of the ankle link complex required for the normal development of auditory hair bundles

Sensory hair bundles in the inner ear are composed of stereocilia that can be interconnected by a variety of different link types, including tip links, horizontal top connectors, shaft connectors, and ankle links. The ankle link antigen is an epitope specifically associated with ankle links and the calycal processes of photoreceptors in chicks. Mass spectrometry and immunoblotting were used to identify this antigen as the avian ortholog of the very large G-protein-coupled receptor VLGR1, the product of the Usher syndrome USH2C (Mass1) locus. Like ankle links, Vlgr1 is expressed transiently around the base of developing hair bundles in mice. Ankle links fail to form in the cochleae of mice carrying a targeted mutation in Vlgr1 (Vlgr1/del7TM), and the bundles become disorganized just after birth. FM1-43 [N-(3-triethylammonium)propyl)-4-(4-(dibutylamino)styryl) pyridinium dibromide] dye loading and whole-cell recordings indicate mechanotransduction is impaired in cochlear, but not vestibular, hair cells of early postnatal Vlgr1/del7TM mutant mice. Auditory brainstem recordings and distortion product measurements indicate that these mice are severely deaf by the third week of life. Hair cells from the basal half of the cochlea are lost in 2-month-old Vlgr1/del7TM mice, and retinal function is mildly abnormal in aged mutants. Our results indicate that Vlgr1 is required for formation of the ankle link complex and the normal development of cochlear hair bundles

Fast Adaptation in Vestibular Hair Cells Requires Myosin-1c Activity

SummaryIn sensory hair cells of the inner ear, mechanical amplification of small stimuli requires fast adaptation, the rapid closing of mechanically activated transduction channels. In frog and mouse vestibular hair cells, we found that the rate of fast adaptation depends on both channel opening and stimulus size and that it is modeled well as a release of a mechanical element in series with the transduction apparatus. To determine whether myosin-1c molecules of the adaptation motor are responsible for the release, we introduced the Y61G mutation into the Myo1c locus and generated mice homozygous for this sensitized allele. Measuring transduction and adaptation in the presence of NMB-ADP, an allele-specific inhibitor, we found that the inhibitor not only blocked slow adaptation, as demonstrated previously in transgenic mice, but also inhibited fast adaptation. These results suggest that mechanical activity of myosin-1c is required for fast adaptation in vestibular hair cells

Effects of Noise on Ecological Invasion Processes: Bacteriophage-mediated Competition in Bacteria

Pathogen-mediated competition, through which an invasive species carrying and transmitting a pathogen can be a superior competitor to a more vulnerable resident species, is one of the principle driving forces influencing biodiversity in nature. Using an experimental system of bacteriophage-mediated competition in bacterial populations and a deterministic model, we have shown in [Joo et al 2005] that the competitive advantage conferred by the phage depends only on the relative phage pathology and is independent of the initial phage concentration and other phage and host parameters such as the infection-causing contact rate, the spontaneous and infection-induced lysis rates, and the phage burst size. Here we investigate the effects of stochastic fluctuations on bacterial invasion facilitated by bacteriophage, and examine the validity of the deterministic approach. We use both numerical and analytical methods of stochastic processes to identify the source of noise and assess its magnitude. We show that the conclusions obtained from the deterministic model are robust against stochastic fluctuations, yet deviations become prominently large when the phage are more pathological to the invading bacterial strain.Comment: 39 pages, 7 figure

Deafness-related decreases in glycine-immunoreactive labeling in the rat cochlear nucleus

There is increasing evidence of activity-related plasticity in auditory pathways. The present study examined the effects of decreased activity on immunolocalization of the inhibitory neurotransmitter glycine in the cochlear nucleus of the rat after bilateral cochlear ablation. Specifically, glycine-immunoreactive puncta adjacent to somatic profiles were compared in normal hearing animals and animals deafened for 14 days. The number of glycine-immunoreactive puncta surrounding somatic profiles of spherical and globular bushy cells, glycine-immunoreactive type I stellate multipolar cells, radiate neurons (type II stellate multipolar cells), and fusiform cells decreased significantly. In addition, the number of glycine immunopositive tuberculoventral (vertical or corn) cells in the deep layer of the dorsal cochlear nucleus also decreased significantly. These results suggest that decreased inhibition reported in cochlear nucleus after deafness may be due to decreases in glycine. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/48685/1/20542_ftp.pd

Natural history of Arabidopsis thaliana and oomycete symbioses

Molecular ecology of plant–microbe interactions has immediate significance for filling a gap in knowledge between the laboratory discipline of molecular biology and the largely theoretical discipline of evolutionary ecology. Somewhere in between lies conservation biology, aimed at protection of habitats and the diversity of species housed within them. A seemingly insignificant wildflower called Arabidopsis thaliana has an important contribution to make in this endeavour. It has already transformed botanical research with deepening understanding of molecular processes within the species and across the Plant Kingdom; and has begun to revolutionize plant breeding by providing an invaluable catalogue of gene sequences that can be used to design the most precise molecular markers attainable for marker-assisted selection of valued traits. This review describes how A. thaliana and two of its natural biotrophic parasites could be seminal as a model for exploring the biogeography and molecular ecology of plant–microbe interactions, and specifically, for testing hypotheses proposed from the geographic mosaic theory of co-evolution