Advanced Energy Retrofit - Designing Integrated Design Roadmaps

Today’s commercial building market can ill afford the renovation of buildings by industry professionals that use archaic methods and uniformed approaches that neglect to account for the building’s energy consumption. This paper advances a comprehensive solution for minimizing energy consumption in existing small to medium-sized commercial buildings. Committed to increasing the number of advanced energy retrofits completed in the United States over the next 20 years, this research team has over the past two years developed an Integrated Design Roadmap for advanced energy retrofits designed to assist project teams and building owners in achieving deep energy savings in the renovation of existing buildings. The paper’s content was produced as part of a research initiative of the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (formerly the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub) and sponsored by the United States (US) Department of Energy since 2011. The Integrated Design (ID) Advanced Energy Retrofit (AER) Roadmap discussed in this paper contains a series of process documents of use to owners, project managers, financial investors, architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals, as well as energy modeling and measurement consultants involved in the completion of an AER, with targeted savings of 50% energy use against its pre-retrofit baseline consumption. This paper will describe the preliminary research required in the design of the ID AER Roadmap, as well as the overall document suite. The ID AER Roadmap document suite includes an Overview brochure that introduces the principle ID concepts, as well as a Reference Manual that details these concepts, with the final component being a Project Team Guide of use to professionals in the building industry. The ID AER Roadmap document suite promotes the adoption of Integrated Design principles during the completion of an advanced energy retrofit. It identifies a set of seven process-based protocols key to the success of any AER, the details of which are described in this paper. The research which has served as a foundation for the Roadmap’s development includes a national survey of advanced energy retrofits completed in the US since the year 2000, a series of interviews of leading professionals who practice Integrated Design, and direct engagement with members of the AEC industry to introduce the Roadmap to a larger market audience

Australian adult smokers\u27 responses to plain packaging with larger graphic health warnings 1 year after implementation: results from a national cross-sectional tracking survey

AbstractBackground We assessed whether the Australian plain packs with larger graphic health warnings (GHWs) achieved three specific objectives of reducing the appeal of tobacco, increasing health warning effectiveness and reducing the ability of packaging to mislead about smoking harms.Methods We compared responses from continuous cross-sectional telephone surveys of n=2176 cigarette smokers during pre-plain packaging (April&ndash;September 2012, pre-PP) with n=759 surveyed in the transition period (October&ndash;November 2012) and n=4240 during the first year of implementation (December 2012&ndash;November 2013, PP year 1), using multivariate logistic regression analyses.Results From pre-PP to PP year 1, more smokers disliked their pack (p&lt;0.001), perceived lower pack appeal (p&lt;0.001), lower cigarette quality (p&lt;0.001), lower satisfaction (p&lt;0.001) and lower value (p&lt;0.001) and disagreed brands differed in prestige (p=0.003). There was no change in perceived differences in taste of different brands. More smokers noticed GHWs (p&lt;0.001), attributed much motivation to quit to GHWs (p&lt;0.001), avoided specific GHWs when purchasing (p&lt;0.001), and covered packs (p&lt;0.001), with no change in perceived exaggeration of harms. PP year 1 saw an increased proportion believing that brands do not differ in harmfulness (p=0.004), but no change in the belief that variants do not differ in strength or the perceived harmfulness of cigarettes compared with a year ago. Interactions signified greater change for four outcomes assessing aspects of appeal among young adults and two appeal outcomes among mid-aged adults.Conclusions The specific objectives of plain packaging were achieved and generally sustained among adult smokers up to 12 months after implementation.<br /

Are quitting-related cognitions and behaviours predicted by proximal responses to plain packaging with larger health warnings? Findings from a national cohort study with Australian adult smokers

Background: Implementation of tobacco plain packaging (PP) with larger graphic health warnings (GHWs) in Australia had positive effects on responses reflecting the specific objectives of the PP policy and on follow-up quitting-related cognitions and behaviours. The aim of this study was to examine predictive relationships bewteen these proximal and distal outcomes.Methods: A nationally representative sample of Australian adult cigarette smokers completed a baseline survey and a 1-month follow-up survey within the first year of policy implementation (n(weighted)=3215). Logistic regression analyses tested whether baseline measures of cigarette appeal, GHW effectiveness, perceived harm and concern/enjoyment predicted each of seven follow-up measures of quitted-related cognitions and behaviours, adjusting for baseline levels of the outcome and covariates.Results: In multivariable models, we found consistent evidence that several baseline measures of GHW effectiveness positively and significantly predicted the likelihood that smokers at follow-up reported thinking about quitting at least daily, intending to quit, having a firm date to quit, stubbing out cigarettes prematurely, stopping oneself from smoking and having attempted to quit. Two of the quitting-related outcomes were also predicted by feeling more smoking-related concern than enjoyment. A smaller number of the appeal variables were prospectively associated with quitting-related outcomes, while believing that brands do not differ in harmlessness did not positively predict any outcomes.Conclusions: These findings provide an initial insight into the pathways through which PP with larger GHWs may lead to changes in smoking behaviour. Future research should examine whether the effects are conditional on individual demographic and smoking characteristics.<br /

Short-term changes in quitting-related cognitions and behaviours after the implementation of plain packaging with larger health warnings : findings from a national cohort study with Australian adult smokers

ABSTRACTBackground: Plain packaging (PP) with larger graphic health warnings (GHWs) was implemented in Australia in late 2012. This study examined effects of these packaging changes on short-term changes in quitting-related cognitions and behaviours.Methods: We used a series of cohorts of Australian adult cigarette smokers originally sourced from a nationally representative cross-sectional tracking survey, followed up approximately 1 month after their baseline interview (n(weighted)=5441). Logistic regression analyses compared changes in seven quitting-related outcomes over this 1-month follow-up period for the cohorts surveyed before PP, over the period of transition to PP, and during the first year of PP, adjusting for baseline levels of the outcome and covariates.Results: Compared to the referent group of smokers who completed their follow-up survey pre-PP, those who were followed-up in the early transition period showed greater increases in rates of stopping themselves from smoking (OR=1.51, 95% CI (1.08 to 2.10)) and higher quit attempt rates (OR=1.43, 95% CI (1.00 to 2.03)), those followed-up in the late transition period showed greater increases in intentions to quit (OR=1.42, 95% CI (1.06 to 1.92)) and pack concealment (OR=1.55, 95% CI (1.05 to 2.31)), and those followed- up in the first year of PP showed higher levels of pack concealment (OR=1.65, 95% CI (1.01 to 2.72)), more premature stubbing out of cigarettes (OR=1.55, 95% CI (1.01 to 2.36)), and higher quit attempt rates (OR=1.52, 95% CI (1.01 to 2.30)).Conclusions: These findings provide some of the strongest evidence to date that implementation of PP with larger GHWs was associated with increased rates of quitting cognitions, microindicators of concern and quit attempts among adult cigarette smokers.<br /

Effect of Axillary Dissection vs No Axillary Dissection on 10-Year Overall Survival Among Women With Invasive Breast Cancer and Sentinel Node Metastasis: The ACOSOG Z0011 (Alliance) Randomized Clinical Trial

The results of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z0011 (ACOSOG Z0011) trial were first reported in 2005 with a median follow-up of 6.3 years. Longer follow-up was necessary because the majority of the patients had estrogen receptor–positive tumors that may recur later in the disease course (the ACOSOG is now part of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology)

Matrix Metalloproteinase-1 is the Major Collagenolytic Enzyme Responsible for Collagen Damage in UV-irradiated Human Skin ¶

Punch biopsies of human skin were obtained 1 day after irradiation with two minimal-erythema doses (MED) from either a UVB light source or a Solar Simulator and incubated in organ culture for 72 h. Organ culture fluids obtained at 24, 48 and 72 h were analyzed for collagenolytic activity and for reactivity with antibodies to matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1; interstitial collagenase) and MMP-13 (collagenase-3). High levels of collagenolytic activity were seen in organ culture fluid from skin exposed to either light source. MMP-1 was strongly induced in parallel, increasing from less than 100 ng/ml in organ culture fluid from control skin to approximately 1.1 mg/ml in culture fluid from UV-treated skin. Whereas most of the detectable MMP-1 in control culture fluid was represented by the latent form of the enzyme, approximately 50% of the enzyme was present as the active form in organ culture fluid of UV-exposed skin. In contrast, there was no detectable MMP-13 in control organ culture fluid and very little change after UV exposure (less than 100 ng/ml in both cases). Finally, neutralization studies with a blocking antibody to MMP-1 removed 95 ± 4% of the collagenolytic activity in the organ culture fluid from UV-treated skin. These findings strongly implicate MMP-1 rather than MMP-13 as the major collagenolytic enzyme responsible for collagen damage in photoaging.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73069/1/0031-8655_2003_0780043MMITMC2.0.CO2.pd