Closing the California Clean Energy Divide: Reducing Electric Bills in Affordable Multifamily Rental Housing with Solar+storage

This economic analysis indicates that pairing solar PV with battery storage systems can deliver significant electricity bill savings for California affordable housing residents and property owners.Battery storage is emerging as an effective new strategy for reducing electricity costs for affordable multifamily rental housing in California. Battery storage systems not only provide economic returns today, they can also preserve the value of solar in an evolving policy and regulatory environment. Because batteries empower owners of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to take control of the energy they produce and when they consume it, storage can deliver deeper cost reductions that can be shared among affordable housing owners, developers, and tenants.California has installed numerous integrated solar and battery storage projects; however, few have served lowincome tenants or owners of affordable rental housing. This disparity is due to many factors, including a lack of information about the economics of these systems in multifamily housing. To provide that needed information, Clean Energy Group, California Housing Partnership, and Center for Sustainable Energy, with analytical support from Geli, are embarking on a series of reports on solar and storage in California affordable multifamily rental housing.This first report examines the utility bill impacts of adding battery storage to stand-alone solar in affordable rental housing facilities in California's three investor-owned utility service territories, each with different rate structures. It is the first such report ever completed on these technologies in this sector in California.The report reaches several key conclusions:Under current utility rate tariffs, the combination of solar and storage technologies could virtually eliminate electric bills for many owners of affordable housing properties. Unlike stand-alone solar, which reduces energy consumption expenses but does little to offset demand related charges, a properly sized solar and battery storage system can eliminate nearly all electricity expenses, resulting in an annual electric utility bill of less than a few hundred dollars in some cases.It makes good economic sense today for solar and battery storage to be installed in affordable multifamily rental housing in California. The addition of battery storage to solar improves the economics of each property analyzed across all utility territories, reducing project payback by over three years in some cases.The addition of storage technologies has the potential to nearly double stand-alone solar electricity bill savings at about a third of the cost of solar. For example, the addition of a $112,100 battery storage system to a$385,000 solar installation increased savings from $15,000 per year to$27,900, an 85 percent increase in savings for only a 29 percent increase in cost

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli superinfection enhances the severity of mouse bladder infection

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) afflict over 9 million women in America every year, often necessitating long-term prophylactic antibiotics. One risk factor for UTI is frequent sexual intercourse, which dramatically increases the risk of UTI. The mechanism behind this increased risk is unknown; however, bacteriuria increases immediately after sexual intercourse episodes, suggesting that physical manipulation introduces periurethral flora into the urinary tract. In this paper, we investigated whether superinfection (repeat introduction of bacteria) resulted in increased risk of severe UTI, manifesting as persistent bacteriuria, high titer bladder bacterial burdens and chronic inflammation, an outcome referred to as chronic cystitis. Chronic cystitis represents unchecked luminal bacterial replication and is defined histologically by urothelial hyperplasia and submucosal lymphoid aggregates, a histological pattern similar to that seen in humans suffering chronic UTI. C57BL/6J mice are resistant to chronic cystitis after a single infection; however, they developed persistent bacteriuria and chronic cystitis when superinfected 24 hours apart. Elevated levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), keratinocyte cytokine (KC/CXCL1), and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in the serum of C57BL/6J mice prior to the second infection predicted the development of chronic cystitis. These same cytokines have been found to precede chronic cystitis in singly infected C3H/HeN mice. Furthermore, inoculating C3H/HeN mice twice within a six-hour period doubled the proportion of mice that developed chronic cystitis. Intracellular bacterial replication, regulated hemolysin (HlyA) expression, and caspase 1/11 activation were essential for this increase. Microarrays conducted at four weeks post inoculation in both mouse strains revealed upregulation of IL-1 and antimicrobial peptides during chronic cystitis. These data suggest a mechanism by which caspase-1/11 activation and IL-1 secretion could predispose certain women to recurrent UTI after frequent intercourse, a predisposition predictable by several serum biomarkers in two murine models

X-ray polarization in relativistic jets

We investigate the polarization properties of Comptonized X-rays from relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) using Monte Carlo simulations. We consider three scenarios commonly proposed for the observed X-ray emission in AGN: Compton scattering of blackbody photons emitted from an accretion disc; scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons and self-Comptonization of intrinsically polarized synchrotron photons emitted by jet electrons. Our simulations show that for Comptonization of disc and CMB photons, the degree of polarization of the scattered photons increases with the viewing inclination angle with respect to the jet axis. In both cases, the maximum linear polarization is ≈20 per cent. In the case of synchrotron self-Comptonization (SSC), we find that the resulting X-ray polarization depends strongly on the seed synchrotron photon injection site, with typical fractional polarizations P≈ 10–20 per cent when synchrotron emission is localized near the jet base, while P≈ 20–70 per cent for the case of uniform emission throughout the jet. These results indicate that X-ray polarimetry may be capable of providing unique clues to identify the location of particle acceleration sites in relativistic jets. In particular, if synchrotron photons are emitted quasi-uniformly throughout a jet, then the observed degree of X-ray polarization may be sufficiently different for each of the competing X-ray emission mechanisms (synchrotron, SSC or external Comptonization) to determine which is the dominant process. However, X-ray polarimetry alone is unlikely to be able to distinguish between disc and CMB Comptonization

Nonradial and nonpolytropic astrophysical outflows IX. Modeling T Tauri jets with a low mass-accretion rate

Context: A large sample of T Tauri stars exhibits optical jets, approximately half of which rotate slowly, only at ten per cent of their breakup velocity. The disk-locking mechanism has been shown to be inefficient to explain this observational fact. Aims: We show that low mass accreting T Tauri stars may have a strong stellar jet component that can effectively brake the star to the observed rotation speed. Methods: By means of a nonlinear separation of the variables in the full set of the MHD equations we construct semi- analytical solutions describing the dynamics and topology of the stellar component of the jet that emerges from the corona of the star. Results: We analyze two typical solutions with the same mass loss rate but different magnetic lever arms and jet radii. The first solution with a long lever arm and a wide jet radius effectively brakes the star and can be applied to the visible jets of T Tauri stars, such as RY Tau. The second solution with a shorter lever arm and a very narrow jet radius may explain why similar stars, either Weak line T Tauri Stars (WTTS) or Classical T Tauri Stars (CTTS) do not all have visible jets. For instance, RY Tau itself seems to have different phases that probably depend on the activity of the star. Conclusions: First, stellar jets seem to be able to brake pre-main sequence stars with a low mass accreting rate. Second, jets may be visible only part time owing to changes in their boundary conditions. We also suggest a possible scenario for explaining the dichotomy between CTTS and WTTS, which rotate faster and do not have visible jets

Attractive force on atoms due to blackbody radiation

Objects at finite temperature emit thermal radiation with an outward energy-momentum flow, which exerts an outward radiation pressure. At room temperature, a cesium atom scatters on average less than one of these blackbody radiation photons every 10^8 years. Thus, it is generally assumed that any scattering force exerted on atoms by such radiation is negligible. However, atoms also interact coherently with the thermal electromagnetic field. In this work, we measure an attractive force induced by blackbody radiation between a cesium atom and a heated, centimeter-sized cylinder which is orders of magnitude stronger than the outward directed radiation pressure. Using atom interferometry, we find that this force scales with the fourth power of the cylinder`s temperature. The force is in good agreement with that predicted from an ac Stark shift gradient of the atomic ground state in the thermal radiation field. This observed force dominates over both gravity and radiation pressure, and does so for a large temperature range

Sex-Biased Gene Flow Among Elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

We quantified patterns of population genetic structure to help understand gene flow among elk populations across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We sequenced 596 base pairs of the mitochondrial control region of 380 elk from eight populations. Analysis revealed high mitochondrial DNA variation within populations, averaging 13.0 haplotypes with high mean gene diversity (0.85). The genetic differentiation among populations for mitochondrial DNA was relatively high (FST = 0.161; P = 0.001) compared to genetic differentiation for nuclear microsatellite data (FST = 0.002; P = 0.332), which suggested relatively low female gene flow among populations. The estimated ratio of male to female gene flow (mm/mf = 46) was among the highest we have seen reported for large mammals. Genetic distance (for mitochondrial DNA pairwise FST) was not significantly correlated with geographic (Euclidean) distance between populations (Mantel’s r = 0.274, P = 0.168). Large mitochondrial DNA genetic distances (e.g., FST . 0.2) between some of the geographically closest populations (,65 km) suggested behavioral factors and/or landscape features might shape female gene flow patterns. Given the strong sex-biased gene flow, future research and conservation efforts should consider the sexes separately when modeling corridors of gene flow or predicting spread of maternally transmitted diseases. The growing availability of genetic data to compare male vs. female gene flow provides many exciting opportunities to explore the magnitude, causes, and implications of sex-biased gene flow likely to occur in many species

X-ray background synthesis: the infrared connection

We present a synthesis model of the X-ray background based on the cross-correlation between mid-infrared and X-ray surveys, where the distribution of type 2 sources is assumed to follow that of luminous infrared galaxies while type 1 sources are traced by the observed ROSAT distribution. The best fits to both the X-ray number counts and background spectrum require at least some density evolution. We explore a limited range of parameter space for the evolutionary variables of the type 2 luminosity function. Matching the redshift distribution to that observed in deep Chandra and XMM fields, we find weak residuals as a signature of Fe emission from sources in a relatively peaked range of redshift. This extends the recent work of Franceschini et al., and emphasizes the possible correlation between obscured AGN and star-forming activity.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, MNRAS accepte

Analysis of Loss of Heterozygosity in Korean Patients with Keratoacanthoma

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) has been established as an important genetic mechanism giving rise to malignant neoplasia. The mechanism of LOH has been shown to cause basal cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma as well as other types of skin cancer. A few studies on LOH in sporadic keratoacanthomas have been reported. The purpose of this study was to investigate the significance of LOH in the pathogenesis of sporadic keratoacanthomas developed in 10 Korean patients. The presents of LOH at 7 microsatellite markers (D2S286, D3S1317, D5S346, D9S160, D9S171, D10S185, and D17S261) were evaluated in sporadic keratoacanthomas. LOH was found in only 1 of 10 cases at D10S185. The low frequency of LOH detected in this study suggests that LOH may not be significant in the induction of sporadic keratoacanthomas

Performance confirmation of the Belle II imaging Time Of Propogation (iTOP) prototype counter

The Bell Detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} collider performed extremely well, logging an integrated luminosity an order of magnitude higher than the design baseline. With this inverse attobarn of integrated luminosity, time-dependent CP-violation inn the 3rd generation beauty quarks was firmly established, and is now a precision measurement. Going beyond this to explore if the Kobayashi-Maskawa mechanism is the only contributor to quark-mixing, and to interrogate the flavor sector for non-standard model enhancements, requires a detector and accelerator capable of topping this world-record luminosity by more than an order of magnitude. The Belle II detector at the upgraded Super-KEKB accelerator has been designed to meet this highly ambitious goal of operating at a luminosity approaching 10{sup 36} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}. Such higher event rates and backgrounds require upgrade of essentially all detector subsystems, as well as their readout. Comparing the Belle composite (threshold Aerogel + Time of Flight) particle identification (PID) system with the DIRC employed by BaBar, quartz radiator internal Cherenkov photon detection proved to have higher kaon efficiency and lower pion fake rates. However, because the detector structure and CsI calorimeter will be retained, an improved barrel PID must fit within a very narrow envelope, as indicated in Figure 1. To effectively utilize this space, a more compact detector concept based on the same quartz radiators, but primarily using photon arrival time was proposed. This Time Of Propagation (TOP) counter was studied in a number of earlier prototype tests. Key to the necessary 10's of picosecond single-photon timing has been the development of the so-called SL-10 Micro-Channel Plate Photo-Multiplier Tube (MCP-PMT), which has demonstrated sub-40 ps single photon Transit Time Spread TTS. Further simulation study of this detector concept indicated that a focusing mirror in the forward direction, as well as a modest image expansion volume and more highly pixelated image plane improve the theoretical detector performance, since timing alone is limited by chromatic dispersion of the Cherenkov photons. This imaging-TOP (or iTOP) counter is the basis of Belle II barrel PID upgrade. However, a number of critical performance parameters must be demonstrated prior to releasing this prototype design for production manufacture