Long-Term US Industrial Energy Use and CO2 Emissions

We present a description and scenario results from our recently-developed long-term model of United States industrial sector energy consumption, which we have incorporated as a module within the ObjECTS-MiniCAM integrated assessment model. This new industrial model focuses on energy technology and fuel choices over a 100 year period and allows examination of the industrial sector response to climate policies within a global modeling framework. A key challenge was to define a level of aggregation that would be able to represent the dynamics of industrial energy demand responses to prices and policies, but at a level that remains tractable over a long time frame. In our initial results, we find that electrification is an important response to a climate policy, although there are services where there are practical and economic limits to electrification, and the ability to switch to a low-carbon fuel becomes key. Cogeneration of heat and power using biomass may also play a role in reducing carbon emissions under a policy constraint

Long-Term Modeling of Wind Energy in the United States

An improved representation of wind energy has been developed for the ObjECTS MiniCAM integrated assessment modeling framework. The first version of this wind model was used for the CCTP scenarios, where wind accounts for between 9% and 17% of U.S. electricity generation by 2095. Climate forcing stabilization policies tend to increase projected deployment. Accelerated technological development in wind electric generation can both increase output and reduce the costs of wind energy. In all scenarios, wind generation is constrained by its costs relative to alternate electricity sources, particularly as less favorable wind farm sites are utilized. These first scenarios were based on exogenous resource estimates that do not allow evaluation of resource availability assumptions. A more detailed representation of wind energy is under development that uses spatially explicit resource information and explicit wind turbine technology characteristics

Climate Change Mitigation: An Analysis of Advanced Technology Scenarios

This report documents a scenario analysis that explores three advanced technology pathways toward climate stabilization using the MiniCAM model

Impact of infection on proteome-wide glycosylation revealed by distinct signatures for bacterial and viral pathogens

Mechanisms of infection and pathogenesis have predominantly been studied based on differential gene or protein expression. Less is known about posttranslational modifications, which are essential for protein functional diversity. We applied an innovative glycoproteomics method to study the systemic proteome-wide glycosylation in response to infection. The protein site-specific glycosylation was characterized in plasma derived from well-defined controls and patients. We found 3862 unique features, of which we identified 463 distinct intact glycopeptides, that could be mapped to more than 30 different proteins. Statistical analyses were used to derive a glycopeptide signature that enabled significant differentiation between patients with a bacterial or viral infection. Furthermore, supported by a machine learning algorithm, we demonstrated the ability to identify the causative pathogens based on the distinctive host blood plasma glycopeptide signatures. These results illustrate that glycoproteomics holds enormous potential as an innovative approach to improve the interpretation of relevant biological changes in response to infection

Genomic investigations of unexplained acute hepatitis in children

Since its first identification in Scotland, over 1,000 cases of unexplained paediatric hepatitis in children have been reported worldwide, including 278 cases in the UK1. Here we report an investigation of 38 cases, 66 age-matched immunocompetent controls and 21 immunocompromised comparator participants, using a combination of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and immunohistochemical methods. We detected high levels of adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) DNA in the liver, blood, plasma or stool from 27 of 28 cases. We found low levels of adenovirus (HAdV) and human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B) in 23 of 31 and 16 of 23, respectively, of the cases tested. By contrast, AAV2 was infrequently detected and at low titre in the blood or the liver from control children with HAdV, even when profoundly immunosuppressed. AAV2, HAdV and HHV-6 phylogeny excluded the emergence of novel strains in cases. Histological analyses of explanted livers showed enrichment for T cells and B lineage cells. Proteomic comparison of liver tissue from cases and healthy controls identified increased expression of HLA class 2, immunoglobulin variable regions and complement proteins. HAdV and AAV2 proteins were not detected in the livers. Instead, we identified AAV2 DNA complexes reflecting both HAdV-mediated and HHV-6B-mediated replication. We hypothesize that high levels of abnormal AAV2 replication products aided by HAdV and, in severe cases, HHV-6B may have triggered immune-mediated hepatic disease in genetically and immunologically predisposed children

Long-Term US Industrial Energy Use and CO2 Emissions Long-Term US Industrial Energy Use and CO2 Emissions Long-Term US Industrial Energy Use and CO 2 Emissions

Abstract We present a description and scenario results from our recently-developed long-term model of United States industrial sector energy consumption, which we have incorporated as a module within the O bj ECTS-MiniCAM integrated assessment model. This new industrial model focuses on energy technology and fuel choices over a 100 year period and allows examination of the industrial sector response to climate policies within a global modeling framework. A key challenge was to define a level of aggregation that would be able to represent the dynamics of industrial energy demand responses to prices and policies, but at a level that remains tractable over a long time frame. In our initial results, we find that electrification is an important response to a climate policy, although there are services where there are practical and economic limits to electrification, and the ability to switch to a low-carbon fuel becomes key. Cogeneration of heat and power using biomass may also play a role in reducing carbon emissions under a policy constraint

International CO2 Stabilization Scenarios with Less-Than-Perfect “Where” and “When” Flexibility

This technical paper discusses several of the cost and emissions issues surrounding international climate change policy structures in which countries take heterogenous approaches to climate change mitigation