Assessing Renewable Technologies at Wild Mountain Cooperative

This report is a renewable energy analysis for an intentional community, Wild Mountain, who would like to decrease their dependence on fossil fuel sources for energy. The homestead’s goal is to further move toward targets of environmental sustainability and eco-justice. Our methods involved a partial energy audit recording the energy usage at the homestead, focusing on the electricity usage, and energy consumption used for heating. Three renewable energy sources were researched and evaluated to assess their viability for offsetting estimated fossil-fuel based energy usage. These three technologies are solar electricity production, methane digestion, and compost heap heating. Calculations and data synthesis were conducted to determine the best energy options for Wild Mountain. These calculations mainly centered around total energy usage, the corresponding greenhouse house emission equivalents, and inputs available at the homestead for the renewable technologies. Synthesis involved taking the calculations to construct energy production scenarios and other determinants of the data; from this recommendations are given on the viability of the renewable technologies being implemented at Wild Mountain. Significant assumptions for data, calculations, and other parts of the project are outlined in the appendices, in order to make the report’s main body more concise. Overall energy usage was found to be 145.41 mmBTUs/year of the parts of the energy usage studied. Attached to this number is the greenhouse emissions equivalents 24319.3 kg CO 2 equivalents. For organic inputs available at the homestead 35295 pounds per year is computed. Solar energy calculations focused on the number of panels necessary to produce electrical energy at certain levels of the homestead’s electrical usage. A 9-panel system that would offsetting a minimum portion of the electrical use that the co-operative wanted to focus on, and a 19-panel system that covers all the known electrical usage. The methane digester depending on design could produce substantial amount of energy. Compost Heap Heating was found to have a theoretical maximum energy production of 163.8 mmBTU per year using the organic inputs available from the homestead. To help conceptualize the results, scenarios involving the implementation of the renewable technologies were constructed to further analyze which renewable technologies would be more ideal in energy production and offsetting the current sources of energy. Five scenarios combined different partnerships of renewable energy and spatial heating in order to compare costs, energy production, and offsetings of current fossil fuel sources across technologies. Recommendations out of the scenario model put forth results for Wild Mountain to consider rather than ranking one scenario more ideal than the others. Other recommendations are made based on the research and results in general, from specific consideration for the technologies to energy conservation

Appraisal of nuclear waste isolation in the vadose zone in arid and semiarid regions (with emphasis on the Nevada Test Site)

An appraisal was made of the concept of isolating high-level radioactive waste in the vadose zone of alluvial-filled valleys and tuffaceous rocks of the Basin and Range geomorphic province. Principal attributes of these terranes are: (1) low population density, (2) low moisture influx, (3) a deep water table, (4) the presence of sorptive rocks, and (5) relative ease of construction. Concerns about heat effects of waste on unsaturated rocks of relatively low thermal conductivity are considered. Calculations show that a standard 2000-acre repository with a thermal loading of 40 kW/acre in partially saturated alluvium or tuff would experience an average temperature rise of less than 100{sup 0}C above the initial temperature. The actual maximum temperature would depend strongly on the emplacement geometry. Concerns about seismicity, volcanism, and future climatic change are also mitigated. The conclusion reached in this appraisal is that unsaturated zones in alluvium and tuff of arid regions should be investigated as comprehensively as other geologic settings considered to be potential repository sites

Application of five DNA marker techniques to distinguish between five apple (Malus x domestica Borkh.) cultivars and their sports

Peer reviewe

Confronting the US's Highly Uneven State-by-State Distribution of Diagnostic Radiology Residency Positions

The state-by-state distribution of diagnostic radiology residency positions is important for several reasons. The location in which residents train is positively correlated with their eventual practice location, and states with relatively few residents may have greater difficulty meeting needs for radiology services ( 1 ). The presence of residents can also enrich the educational experiences of other learners such as medical students, but this is less likely to happen when residents are in short supply ( 2 ). Finally, because residency training programs can promote a culture of inquiry, a dearth of residents may undermine intellectual engagement within a professional community ( 3 )

Application of five DNA marker techniques to distinguish between five apple (Malus x domestica Borkh.) cultivars and their sports

Peer reviewe

PET and SPECT Imaging of the Brain: History, Technical Considerations, Applications, and Radiotracers

Advances in nuclear medicine have revolutionized our ability to accurately diagnose patients with a wide array of neurologic pathologies and provide appropriate therapy. The development of new radiopharmaceuticals has made possible the identification of regional differences in brain tissue composition and metabolism. In addition, the evolution of 3-dimensional molecular imaging followed by fusion with computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging have allowed for more precise localization of pathologies. This review will introduce single photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomographic imaging of the brain, including the history of their development, technical considerations, and a brief overview of pertinent radiopharmaceuticals and their applications

Child maltreatment in the "children of the nineties" : a cohort study of risk factors

Aim: To analyze the multiple factors affecting the risk of maltreatment in young children within a comprehensive theoretical framework. Methods: The research is based on a large UK cohort study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Out of 14,256 children participating in the study, 293 were investigated by social services for suspected maltreatment and 115 were placed on local child protection registers prior to their 6th birthday. Data on the children have been obtained from obstetric data and from a series of parental questionnaires administered during pregnancy and the first 3 years of life. Risk factors have been analyzed using an hierarchical approach to logistic regression analysis. Results: In the stepwise hierarchical analysis, young parents, those with low educational achievement, and those with a past psychiatric history or a history of childhood abuse were all more likely to be investigated for maltreatment, or to have a child placed on the child protection register, with odds ratios between 1.86 and 4.96 for registration. Examining strength of effect, the highest risks were found with indicators of deprivation (3.24 for investigation and 11.02 for registration, after adjusting for parental background factors). Poor social networks increased the risk of both investigation (adjusted OR 1.93) and registration (adjusted OR 1.90). Maternal employment seemed to reduce the risk of both outcomes but adjusted odds ratios were no longer significant for registration. After adjusting for higher order confounders, single parents and reordered families were both at higher risk of registration. Reported domestic violence increased the risk of investigation and registration but this was no longer significant after adjusting for higher order variables. Low birthweight children were at higher risk of registration as were those whose parents reported few positive attributes of their babies. Conclusions: This study supports previous research in the field demonstrating that a wide range of factors in the parental background, socio-economic and family environments affect the risk of child maltreatment. By combining factors within a comprehensive ecological framework, we have demonstrated that the strongest risks are from socio-economic deprivation and from factors in the parents' own background and that parental background factors are largely, but not entirely, mediated through their impact on socio-economic factors

Osteomacs interact with megakaryocytes and osteoblasts to regulate murine hematopoietic stem cell function

Networking between hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and cells of the hematopoietic niche is critical for stem cell function and maintenance of the stem cell pool. We characterized calvariae-resident osteomacs (OMs) and their interaction with megakaryocytes to sustain HSC function and identified distinguishing properties between OMs and bone marrow (BM)–derived macrophages. OMs, identified as CD45+F4/80+ cells, were easily detectable (3%-5%) in neonatal calvarial cells. Coculture of neonatal calvarial cells with megakaryocytes for 7 days increased OM three- to sixfold, demonstrating that megakaryocytes regulate OM proliferation. OMs were required for the hematopoiesis-enhancing activity of osteoblasts, and this activity was augmented by megakaryocytes. Serial transplantation demonstrated that HSC repopulating potential was best maintained by in vitro cultures containing osteoblasts, OMs, and megakaryocytes. With or without megakaryocytes, BM-derived macrophages were unable to functionally substitute for neonatal calvarial cell–associated OMs. In addition, OMs differentiated into multinucleated, tartrate resistant acid phosphatase–positive osteoclasts capable of bone resorption. Nine-color flow cytometric analysis revealed that although BM-derived macrophages and OMs share many cell surface phenotypic similarities (CD45, F4/80, CD68, CD11b, Mac2, and Gr-1), only a subgroup of OMs coexpressed M-CSFR and CD166, thus providing a unique profile for OMs. CD169 was expressed by both OMs and BM-derived macrophages and therefore was not a distinguishing marker between these 2 cell types. These results demonstrate that OMs support HSC function and illustrate that megakaryocytes significantly augment the synergistic activity of osteoblasts and OMs. Furthermore, this report establishes for the first time that the crosstalk between OMs, osteoblasts, and megakaryocytes is a novel network supporting HSC function