NET ZERO ENERGY BUILDING ANALYSIS FOR MCDONALDS USA, LLC

As a leader in the global quick service restaurant market, McDonald’s USA, LLC aims to push the limits of their energy efficiency and tasked the Duke team with exploring the possibility of a ‘net zero energy’ restaurant. This exploration includes researching and proposing design aspects and technologies for a restaurant in the Chicago, IL area to achieve net zero energy (NZE) consumption onsite utilizing the LEED Volume Prototype restaurant as a baseline comparison. The project focused on improving current technologies and building design aspects including, but not limited to, the following areas: the building envelope, including roof and wall insulation and window design; the service hot water system (SHW); lighting fixtures and systems; and ventilation system. Due to the heavy influence of McDonald’s operational design on its brand, the recommendations included in the analysis account for the restaurant’s operational constraints. The final deliverable presents maximum energy savings possible without violating most of these constraints and estimates the amount of renewable energy necessary to meet the resulting decreased energy demand of the proposed ‘Net Zero Restaurant’ to meet the goal of a net zero energy site

Estrategia para afrontar la deserción universitaria desde las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones

The article presents general objective describe the main components of a strategy by the use of Information Technology and Communications (TIC) to address the problem of the undergraduate student desertion of universities in Colombia. it is the purpose of proposing a strategy to avoid duplication of efforts and resources expenses when determining whether a student is at risk of dropping out. The overall methodological development was approached from heuristics and the projectile area, the specific methodology to establish three phases, planning, design and development were defined. Through this article the institutions of higher education may have a strategy to address the problem of undergraduate student desertion. Regionally the study may be used as a reference for implementing new strategies to help reduce dropout rates from the experiences of other institutions in the country.El artículo presenta como objetivo general describir los principales componentes de una estrategia mediante el uso de las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC) para abordar la problemática de la deserción estudiantil en los pregrados de las universidades en Colombia. Lo anterior con el propósito de proponer una estrategia, evitar la duplicidad de esfuerzos y gastos en recursos a la hora de determinar si un estudiante se encuentra en riesgo de deserción. El desarrollo metodológico general se abordó desde la heurística y el ámbito proyectivo, para establecer la metodología específica se definieron tres fases, planeación, diseño y elaboración. A través del presente artículo las instituciones de educación superior podrán contar con una estrategia para abordar el problema de la deserción estudiantil en pregrado. A nivel regional se podrá utilizar el estudio como referencia para implementar nuevas estrategias que ayuden a disminuir los índices de deserción a partir de las experiencias de otras instituciones en el país

The Extracellular Matrix Component Psl Provides Fast-Acting Antibiotic Defense in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms

Bacteria within biofilms secrete and surround themselves with an extracellular matrix, which serves as a first line of defense against antibiotic attack. Polysaccharides constitute major elements of the biofilm matrix and are implied in surface adhesion and biofilm organization, but their contributions to the resistance properties of biofilms remain largely elusive. Using a combination of static and continuous-flow biofilm experiments we show that Psl, one major polysaccharide in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm matrix, provides a generic first line of defense toward antibiotics with diverse biochemical properties during the initial stages of biofilm development. Furthermore, we show with mixed-strain experiments that antibiotic-sensitive “non-producing” cells lacking Psl can gain tolerance by integrating into Psl-containing biofilms. However, non-producers dilute the protective capacity of the matrix and hence, excessive incorporation can result in the collapse of resistance of the entire community. Our data also reveal that Psl mediated protection is extendible to E. coli and S. aureus in co-culture biofilms. Together, our study shows that Psl represents a critical first bottleneck to the antibiotic attack of a biofilm community early in biofilm development.National Institutes of Health (U.S.). National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Training Grant in Toxicology 5 T32 ES7020-37

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Measurement of the t-channel single top quark production cross section in pp collisions at √s =7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Study of the production of charged pions, kaons, and protons in pPb collisions at √SNN=5.02 TeV

Peer reviewe

Development and evaluation of a machine learning-based in-hospital COVID-19 disease outcome predictor (CODOP): A multicontinental retrospective study

New SARS-CoV-2 variants, breakthrough infections, waning immunity, and sub-optimal vaccination rates account for surges of hospitalizations and deaths. There is an urgent need for clinically valuable and generalizable triage tools assisting the allocation of hospital resources, particularly in resource-limited countries. We developed and validate CODOP, a machine learning-based tool for predicting the clinical outcome of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. CODOP was trained, tested and validated with six cohorts encompassing 29223 COVID-19 patients from more than 150 hospitals in Spain, the USA and Latin America during 2020-22. CODOP uses 12 clinical parameters commonly measured at hospital admission for reaching high discriminative ability up to 9 days before clinical resolution (AUROC: 0.90-0.96), it is well calibrated, and it enables an effective dynamic risk stratification during hospitalization. Furthermore, CODOP maintains its predictive ability independently of the virus variant and the vaccination status. To reckon with the fluctuating pressure levels in hospitals during the pandemic, we offer two online CODOP calculators, suited for undertriage or overtriage scenarios, validated with a cohort of patients from 42 hospitals in three Latin American countries (78-100% sensitivity and 89-97% specificity). The performance of CODOP in heterogeneous and geographically disperse patient cohorts and the easiness of use strongly suggest its clinical utility, particularly in resource-limited countries

Event-shape engineering for inclusive spectra and elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV

Peer reviewe