Energy efficiency study of single-wide manufactured homes

This Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) was among Tennessee Technological University, Clayton Homes, Inc., and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Manufactured homes now make up a substantial portion of the new home market, and improving the energy efficiency of these homes would save significant amounts of energy. This project explored the impact of differing levels of attic insulation, the use of evacuated insulation panels, and the application of a solar reflective roof coating. The performance of the installed roof cavity insulation compared favorably with that predicted by laboratory measurements. The more heavily insulated of the two units used about 30% less energy over the period of the project than the standard unit. Based on the experimental data, computer simulations for nine cities were completed for a single-wide manufactured home with the solar reflective roof coating. Annual electric power savings ranged from 894 kWh in Rapid City to 2119 kWh for the same roof area in Los Angeles. The field performance of vacuum insulation panels was compared with laboratory performance. The panels will perform as expected if protected from puncture

Art Education: Creative Birthright

Art Education: Creative Birthright by Fran Bolte, Nancy Reynolds, Kelly Spragins, Pam Stephens and Donna Stovall. The document opens up with a statement on human beings around the world are inherently creative, capable of reflecting ideas, values and emotions but brings up the question as to why so many in society lose this creative birthright into the adulthood. It is because of the rush to reform education and how creativity is often left behind. The document details why art and art education is important to the children and to the public school system

Real Science, Real Education: The University Nanosat Program

The University Nanosat Program (UNP) is a two year small satellite competition held among leading universities across the nation. In the past 12 years, UNP has involved 27 universities and over 5000 students in a variety of engineering fields and other disciplines, in the process of designing and managing the development of a satellite. The UNP is a partnership between the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The program’s primary purpose is to help train engineering students in satellite design, fabrication, and testing by requiring them to build the satellite themselves through the mentorship of their Principle Investigator, industry mentors, and a series of six program reviews managed by the AFRL Program Office. Each university-built satellite attempts to further a specific technology or perform a scientific mission. Technologies advanced through the program include all aspects of small satellite designs including structures, propulsion, imaging, and navigation and have helped further science payloads such as energetic particle detectors, plasma probes, photometers, and many others. This paper will discuss the educational impact on students involved in a hands-on, hardware focused program. The paper will also address the recent launch of FASTRAC, the Nanosat-3 (NS-3) competition cycle winner built by the University of Texas at Austin, the upcoming launch of CUSAT, the NS-4 winner built by Cornell University; as well as the NS-5 winner DANDE built by the University of Colorado - Boulder. It will discuss the program’s design philosophy as well as the challenges in creating space flight hardware with a small budget on a student schedule. Finally, the article will discuss some of the upcoming changes in the program such as the acceptance of CubeSats as equal competitors with the standard 50 kg nanosatellites

Addressing childcare as a barrier to healthcare access through community partnerships in a large public health system

Objective In our public health system, a survey of reproductive-aged women identified lack of childcare as the most common reason for missing or delaying healthcare. Community-based organisations (CBOs) in our county identified a similar need, so we partnered to develop a hospital-based childcare centre for patients to use during appointments.Methods In a large academic public health system, a partnership with a non-profit childcare CBO was formed to address lack of childcare as a barrier to accessing healthcare. Pilot clinics where no-cost childcare would be offered included obstetrics, gynaecology and medical oncology. Transparent communication from the CBO within the electronic medical record was built to minimally impact clinic workflows. Visual and electronic outreach, including patient portal questionnaires, were created to introduce patients to the services. Personalised clinic staff in-services were performed to introduce the service to clinics and leadership. Continual assessments of workflow were conducted and adjusted based on patient and staff feedback and quality checks. At 12 months, overall utilisation of the service was collected.Results In the first 12 months that no-cost childcare was offered, 175 patients enrolled 271 children into the programme. Ninety-seven percent were women, primarily Hispanic (87/175 (50%)) or black (64/175 (37%)), with an average age of 31.8 years. Of the enrollees, 142/175 (81%) patients made 637 childcare appointments and 119/175 (68%) patients used at least one reservation for 191 children. Most patients were verbally referred by clinic staff for childcare or self-referred for childcare from clinic signage or paperwork. Childcare was requested most frequently for obstetrics and gynaecology appointments

A Comparative Evaluation of Normal Tissue Doses for Patients Receiving Radiation Therapy for Hodgkin Lymphoma on the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study and Recent Children\u27s Oncology Group Trials

PURPOSE: Survivors of pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) are recognized to have an increased risk of delayed adverse health outcomes related to radiation therapy (RT). However, the necessary latency required to observe these late effects means that the estimated risks apply to outdated treatments. We sought to compare the normal tissue dose received by children treated for HL and enrolled in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) (diagnosed 1970-1986) with that of patients treated in recent Children\u27s Oncology Group (COG) trials (enrolled 2002-2012). METHODS AND MATERIALS: RT planning data were obtained for 50 HL survivors randomly sampled from the CCSS cohort and applied to computed tomography planning data sets to reconstruct the normal tissue dosimetry. For comparison, the normal tissue dosimetry data were obtained for all 191 patients with full computed tomography-based volumetric RT planning on COG protocols AHOD0031 and AHOD0831. RESULTS: For early-stage patients, the mean female breast dose in the COG patients was on average 83.5% lower than that for CCSS patients, with an absolute reduction of 15.5 Gy. For advanced-stage patients, the mean breast dose was decreased on average by 70% (11.6 Gy average absolute dose reduction). The mean heart dose decreased on average by 22.9 Gy (68.6%) and 17.6 Gy (56.8%) for early- and advanced-stage patients, respectively. All dose comparisons for breast, heart, lung, and thyroid were significantly lower for patients in the COG trials than for the CCSS participants. Reductions in the prescribed dose were a major contributor to these dose reductions. CONCLUSIONS: These are the first data quantifying the significant reduction in the normal tissue dose using actual, rather than hypothetical, treatment plans for children with HL. These findings provide useful information when counseling families regarding the risks of contemporary RT

Thyroid Cancer Risk 40+ Years after Irradiation for an Enlarged Thymus: An Update of the Hempelmann Cohort

Although ionizing radiation is a known carcinogen, the long-term risk from relatively higher-dose diagnostic procedures during childhood is less well known. We evaluated this risk indirectly by assessing thyroid cancer incidence in a cohort treated with “lower-dose” chest radiotherapy more than 55 years ago. Between 2004 and 2008, we re-surveyed a population-based cohort of subjects treated with radiation for an enlarged thymus during infancy between 1926 and 1957 and their unexposed siblings. Thyroid cancer occurred in 50 irradiated subjects (mean thyroid dose, 1.29 Gy) and in 13 nonirradiated siblings during 334,347 person-years of follow-up. After adjusting for attained age, Jewish religion, sex and history of goiter, the rate ratio for thyroid cancer was 5.6 (95% CI: 3.1–10.8). The adjusted excess relative risk per gray was 3.2 (95% CI: 1.5–6.6). The adjusted excess absolute risk per gray was 2.2 cases (95% CI: 1.4–3.2) per 10,000 person-years. Cumulative thyroid cancer incidence remains elevated in this cohort after a median 57.5 years of follow-up and is dose-dependent. Although the incidence appeared to decrease after 40 years, increased risk remains a lifelong concern in those exposed to lower doses of medical radiation during early childhood

Risk of coronary events 55 Years after Thymic irradiation in the Hempelmann cohort

Abstract Background Studies of cancer survivors treated with older radiotherapy (RT) techniques (pre-1990s) strongly suggest that ionizing radiation to the chest increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Our goal was to evaluate the impact of more modern cardiac shielding techniques of RT on the magnitude and timing of CHD risk by studying a cohort exposed to similar levels of cardiac irradiation years ago. Methods Between 2004 and 2008, we re-established a population-based, longitudinal cohort of 2657 subjects exposed to irradiation for an enlarged thymus during infancy between 1926 and 1957 and 4388 of their non-irradiated siblings. CHD events were assessed using a mailed survey and from causes of death listed in the National Death Index. We used Poisson regression methods to compare incidence rates by irradiation status and cardiac radiation dose. Results were adjusted for the CHD risk factors of attained-age, sex, diabetes, dyslipidemia hypertension and smoking. Results Median age at time of follow-up was 57.5 years (range 41.2–88.8 yrs) for irradiated and non-irradiated siblings. The mean estimated cardiac dose amongst the irradiated was 1.45 Gray (range 0.17–20.20 Gy), with 91% receiving < 3.00 Gy. During a combined 339,924 person-years of follow-up, 213 myocardial infarctions (MI) and 350 CHD events (MI, bypass surgery and angioplasty) occurred. After adjustment for attained age, gender, and other CHD risk factors, the rate ratio for MI incidence in the irradiated group was 0.98 (95%CI, 0.74–1.30), and for any CHD event was 1.07 (95%CI, 0.86–1.32). Higher radiation doses were not associated with more MIs or CHD events in this dose range, in either the crude or the adjusted analyses. Conclusions Radiation to the heart during childhood of < 3 Gy, the exposure in most of our cohort, does not increase the lifelong risk of CHD. Reducing cardiac radiation to this amount without increasing other cardiotoxic therapies may eliminate the increased CHD risk associated with radiotherapy for childhood cancer. By extension there is unlikely to be increased CHD risk from relatively higher dose imaging techniques, such as CT, because such techniques use much smaller radiation doses than received by our cohort