Developing Environmental Sustainability Metrics A Study of Harley-Davidson Dealerships

Abstract Developing Environmental Sustainability Metrics A Study of Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Dealerships By Matthew J. Redmann, CHMM May 2011 The Harley-Davidson dealership network has 600 locations in the United States. Currently there is no common methodology to measure the impact that these dealerships have on the environment. With no method to measure the environmental impact there is little that can be done to reduce impact. This project developed a common way to assess environmental sustainability at a Harley dealership. Any environmental sustainability metric has to be relevant to the business, simple to use, provide dynamic feedback, and reveal performance levels. Examples of environmental sustainability metrics and similar dealership programs were reviewed to see if the knowledge was transferable. Once a metric was developed a survey was sent out to Harley dealerships to validate the metric performance. The metric uses both non-normalized and normalized energy, waste and water data to complete the environmental picture. Due to inconsistent waste and water data in the sample, only the energy metric was tested. The non-normalized energy metric is the annual energy consumed BTU per square foot of building (building performance). The normalized energy metric is annual energy consumed BTU per square foot / annual dealer revenue (operational performance). The metric is able to detect both good and poor performance and provide information to help dealers make decisions to make improvements. This metric can be used at any dealership regardless of size or location. Additional research using the metrics developed could be used to develop an environmental strategy guide for Harley-Davidson dealerships. Approved ___________________________________ Dr. Deborah Rigling-Gallagher, Advisor ________4/25/2011___________________ Date Master's Project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Environmental Management degree in the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University May 201

Autophagy in mitochondrial quality control and proteotoxicity in neurons

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the 2nd most common neurodegenerative disorder with aging as a significant risk factor. Sharing with aging brains, postmortem PD brains exhibit cellular deficits including autophagic dysfunction, mitochondrial dysfunction, and intracellular protein aggregates of alpha-synuclein. This dissertation will focus on the interplay between these key disease features. To that end, we coupled primary cortical neuronal cultures from either rats or mice with Seahorse extracellular flux, metabolomics and biochemical techniques. Autophagy is an important cell recycling program responsible for the clearance of damaged proteins and organelles. Bafilomycin A1 and chloroquine are compounds that inhibit autophagy by targeting the lysosome. Since it is now clear that mitochondrial quality control is dependent on autophagy, we determined whether these compounds could modify cellular bioenergetics. As expected, both bafilomycin and chloroquine significantly increased the autophagosome marker LC3-II. Under these conditions, we found that they significantly inhibited parameters of mitochondrial function and increased mtDNA damage without inducing cell death. Associated with these mitochondrial deficits, we also observed significant alterations in TCA cycle intermediates, indicating a significant role of autophagy in cellular metabolic programs. Beyond the importance of autophagy for mitochondrial quality, we further investigated the interplay between protein aggregation and autophagy in a PD model. Exposure to aSyn pre-formed fibrils (PFFs) has been shown to induce aggregation of endogenous aSyn resulting in cell death that is exacerbated by autophagy induction through either starvation or inhibition of mTOR by rapamycin. Since mTOR inhibition may also inhibit protein synthesis, and starvation by itself can be detrimental to neuronal survival, we investigated the effects of autophagy induction by a starvation and mTOR-independent method, using trehalose. We observed that on exposure to PFFs, there was increased abundance of pS129-aSyn aggregates and cell death. Trehalose alone increased LC3-II levels, consistent with increased autophagosome levels, that remained elevated with PFF exposure. Interestingly, trehalose alone increased cell viability over a 14-day time course and was also able to restore cell viability to control levels, but PFFs still exhibited toxic effects on the cells. Together, these data provide essential information regarding the interplay of autophagy, mitochondrial function and protein aggregation in PD

Demographic Characteristics of Children Diagnosed with Bacterial Tracheitis

Objectives: Examine the presentation and clinical course of patients with bacterial tracheitis (BT). Identify if socioeconomic differences exist among children who present with BT. Methods: This was a retrospective case series from a tertiary care pediatric medical center. The study group included patients less than 18 years old who were diagnosed with BT from January 2011 to March 2019. Patients with a tracheostomy and those who developed BT after prolonged hospitalization were excluded. Patient demographics were compared with the demographics of the counties surrounding the hospital. Results: 33 patients with BT met inclusion criteria. The most common presenting symptoms were difficulty breathing, stridor, and sore throat (81.8% each), followed by cough (78.8%). Median length of stay was 3 days [interquartile range (IQR):2-4]. 19 patients (57.5%) were admitted to the intensive care unit. Intubation was required for 13 patients (39.4%), for a median length of 2 days [IQR:2-2]. Methicillin sensitive staphylococcus aureus was the most common bacterial etiology (33%). Mean presenting age was 8.58 years [95% confidence interval:7.3-9.9] and 14 patients were female (42.4%). 31 patients were white (93.9%), 1 was black (3%), and 1 was Hispanic (3%). BT patients were more likely to have private insurance compared to comparison (81.8% vs 63.4%, P &lt; .001). Conclusion: Children who presented with BT were more likely to be privately insured than a comparison population. </jats:sec