Litigation as a Tool for Community Empowerment: The Case of Kenya’s Ogiek

In May 2017, the Ogiek indigenous community of Kenya successfully challenged the denial of their land and associated rights before the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights (‘the Court’). In the first indigenous peoples’ rights case considered the Court, and by far the largest ever case it has had to consider, the Court found violations of Articles 1, 2, 8, 14, 17 (2) and (3), 21 and 22 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (‘the African Charter’). It therefore created a major legal precedent. In addition, the litigation itself and Ogiek’s participation in the various stages of the legal process provided a model for community engagement, through which the Ogiek were empowered to better understand and advocate for their rights. This article will first explain the history of the case and the Court’s findings, and then move on to examine in further detail methods employed to build the Ogiek’s capacity throughout, and even beyond, the litigation

Symmetric Grothendieck polynomials, skew Cauchy identities, and dual filtered Young graphs

Symmetric Grothendieck polynomials are analogues of Schur polynomials in the K-theory of Grassmannians. We build dual families of symmetric Grothendieck polynomials using Schur operators. With this approach we prove skew Cauchy identity and then derive various applications: skew Pieri rules, dual filtrations of Young's lattice, generating series and enumerative identities. We also give a new explanation of the finite expansion property for products of Grothendieck polynomials

Control of Daily Transcript Oscillations in Drosophila by Light and the Circadian Clock

The transcriptional circuits of circadian clocks control physiological and behavioral rhythms. Light may affect such overt rhythms in two ways: (1) by entraining the clock circuits and (2) via clock-independent molecular pathways. In this study we examine the relationship between autonomous transcript oscillations and light-driven transcript responses. Transcript profiles of wild-type and arrhythmic mutant Drosophila were recorded both in the presence of an environmental photocycle and in constant darkness. Systematic autonomous oscillations in the 12- to 48-h period range were detectable only in wild-type flies and occurred preferentially at the circadian period length. However, an extensive program of light-driven expression was confirmed in arrhythmic mutant flies. Many light-responsive transcripts are preferentially expressed in the compound eyes and the phospholipase C component of phototransduction, NORPA (no receptor potential), is required for their light-dependent regulation. Although there is evidence for the existence of multiple molecular clock circuits in cyanobacteria, protists, plants, and fungi, Drosophila appears to possess only one such system. The sustained photic expression responses identified here are partially coupled to the circadian clock and may reflect a mechanism for flies to modulate functions such as visual sensitivity and synaptic transmission in response to seasonal changes in photoperiod

Shower Testing for the Texas Department of Corrections

The savings determined are about one-third the estimate made before testing, since the low flow heads tested require that supply water temperatures be approximately 10 F higher than standard heads to achieve comparable temperatures in the spray pattern, and further study has shown lower shower water usage than initially estimated. Over 80% of the savings projected will be due to reduced water and sewer costs. Further testing to determine whether very low flow heads exist which do not require elevated supply temperatures are recommended. It is also recommended that further testing be conducted to determine if the 105 F now used to supply TDC showers is optimal. Limited comfort testing suggests that supply temperatures closer to 100 F may be appropriate.Measurements have been conducted on four low flow showerheads highly recommended by utilities. These measurements were made to determine expected cost savings in TDC installations, based on water savings, sewer savings, and energy savings. Flow rates of 1.95 gpm at 40 psi were found for three of the showerheads tested. This compares with the 2.5 gpm rating of the standard heads used by TDC. Hence, any of these three heads tested would provide total annual savings of $12,337 at Gatesville and$11,036 at Amarillo, or over $35 per showerhead compared with the showerheads currently being used by TDC. The estimated payback is less than two months

Improved Analysis Methods for Retrofit Savings and Energy Accounting (ERAP #227)

A grocery store, two nursing homes, an institutional building, and a high school have been selected as preliminary case study buildings. All of the buildings except the nursing homes have been instrumented to provide sub-metered and total energy use data. Additional buildings in the Texas LoanSTAR program are also instrumented and are being analyzed.This report summarizes progress through November, 1990 for ERAP project No. 227, "Improved Analysis Methods for Retrofit Savings and Energy Accounting." The major objectives of this project are to: (1) determine the energy and dollar savings from energy conservation retrofits; (2) reduce energy costs by identifying and correcting operational and maintenance problems at retrofitted facilities; (3) identify savings from individual retrofits to help improve future retrofit selection; and (4) initiate an end-use data base for commercial and institutional buildings to facilitate the comparison and exchange of building energy use information

Cooling-Only Prism Analysis of Eleven College Station Homes and Interpretation of Building Physical Parameters

A cooling-only PRISM analysis has been performed on eleven new residences in College Station using electricity billing data over an entire year. This study revealed that, provided one corrects for effects such as vacation periods, erroneous utility meter readings and abnormal occupancy patterns during holiday periods, the PRISM approach can accurately model whole-building electricity use (R^2 in the range of 0.92 to 0.99). The physical interpretation of the building parameters determined by PRISM has also been evaluated against continuous measurements of indoor temperature and air-conditioned electricity consumption made during the summer as part of another study. We find that the PRISM estimates for balance point temperature are within a few degrees of actually "measured" values and seem to be unbiased. The PRISM estimates for base-load consumption. on the other hand, are consistently higher by 50% to 100% of the measured base-loads, and factors which may contribute to this bias have also been briefly discussed

Program Overview: The Texas LoanSTAR Program; 1989-October 1999, A 10-Year Experience

The Texas LoanSTAR (Loans to Save Taxes and Resources) program was conceived as a $98.6 million capital retrofit program for building energy efficiency. The funding source is petroleum violation escrow funds (PVE) from the Federal government. LoanSTAR is administered by the Texas State Energy Conservation Office of the Comptroller's Office, under the guidance of Dub Taylor, Director, and is the largest revolving loan fund administered by a state for conservation purposes. LoanSTAR was conceived in 1988 and began in 1989. This paper summarizes the program dollar savings and environmental impact from its inception through October 1999

Policy Recommendations for Establishing the LoneSTAR Monitoring and Analysis Program

The major objectives of the Monitoring and Analysis Program (MAP) should be to: Verify energy and dollar savings of the retrofits; Reduce energy costs by identifying operational and maintenance improvements at facilities receiving retrofits; Improve retrofit selection in future rounds of the LoanSTAR Program; and Provide a detailed data base of energy use in commercial/institutional buildings located in Texas

Survey of Energy Use in Grocery Stores

This paper presents the results of an energy use survey assembled for 93 grocery stores in south Texas. All stores were of the same chain. Several conclusions were drawn. Total electricity consumption per square foot is roughly 9 W/ft^2 for all stores, and varies by ± 2 W/ft^2. This seemed to be due to a set amount of refrigeration capacity in the stores. In this survey, stores built after 1979 had roughly 9% less energy consumption per ft^2 than those built before 1979. Heat reclamation from the refrigeration systems provided an adequate means of space heating most winter-time conditions. In many cases, stores used natural gas primarily for cooking. Grocery store energy use is divisible into components, some of which are dependent on store size and some of which are not, a more detailed analysis is required in order to determine key predictors of energy use