Field test of a silver-impregnated ceramic water filter

The silver-impregnated Ceramic Water Purifier (CWP) is a low-cost household water filter that removes micro-biological contamination at the point of use. One thousand CWPs were distributed in twelve Cambodian villages to test their effectiveness under conditions of rural household use. Water quality tests (n=686) were conducted to measure filter performance. A control group comparison survey (n=201) and a baseline and follow-up survey (n=1,000) measured impacts on household health and expenses. Ninety-nine percent of CWPs produced water meeting WHO ‘low risk’ guidelines or better (10 or fewer E. coli per 100 ml). Households that used CWPs experienced significantly lower incidence of diarrhoea than households without CWPs. Households that had previously boiled their drinking water experienced savings in time and expenses after using the CWP. The CWP’s low production cost (US$5.50) opens the possibility of reaching large numbers of the rural poor through sustainable market channels

Carbon Footprint Analysis of Gasoline and Diesel from Forest Residues and Algae using Integrated Hydropyrolysis and Hydroconversion Plus Fischer–Tropsch (IH² Plus cool GTL)

Life cycle analysis was conducted with a focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of renewable gasoline and diesel produced by the integrated hydropyrolysis and hydroconversion (IH²) and the new IH² plus Fischer–Tropsch (IH² Plus cool GTL) processes. This new process has a primary objective of increasing the yield of biofuel relative to original IH² process (increase of 26% to 38% wt) by processing the C1–C3 gas co-products through an integrated Fischer–Tropsch unit to produce liquid-range hydrocarbon biofuel. For both biofuel processes, woody biomass residues (forest logging and saw mills) and algae were investigated as feedstocks. The effect of the electricity generation mix of different states in the U.S. was also examined for algae cultivation. For woody residues as feedstock, life cycle GHG emission savings of about 86.8% and 63.3% were calculated for the IH² and optimized-IH² Plus cool GTL hydrocarbon biofuel, respectively, relative to fossil-derived fuel. For algae as feedstock, emission increases of about 140% and 103% were calculated for the IH² and optimized-IH² Plus cool GTL, respectively, relative to fossil-derived fuel. The electricity grid mix of the biorefinery location significantly impacts the GHG emissions of the processes for algae feedstock. GHG savings of about 42% can be potentially achieved if the plant was located in an area with a low GHG intensity grid. This study has shown that a significant biofuel yield boost can be achieved while retaining high GHG savings by using IH² Plus cool GTL for a woody feedstock

Comparison of the three assemblies for the subset of the 21 BACs from the Rat genome.

<p>The “original Atlas with UMD Plausible” and “original Atlas with UMD reliable” assembly results obtained by substituting Phrap for PhrapUMD with UMD plausible and reliable overlaps respectively. The best assembly (the bottom line) uses PhrapUMD and UMD reliable overlaps utilizing the 2-pass approach described in the “<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0001836#s2" target="_blank">Methods</a>” section. It has almost 3% more sequence matching finished sequence than original Atlas with Phrap at less than 1/4 the original base error rate.</p

Two alignments of assemblies to the finished sequence of BAC GQQD.

<p>The original Atlas assembly created two scaffolds only covering 73.2% of the finished sequence. Note the misplaced 20 Kb segment in the Atlas assembly. The UMD+Atlas assembly of GQQD correctly places the 20 Kb section originally misplaced and creates a single scaffold of the BAC covering 93.3% of the finished sequence. This UMD+Atlas assembly used reliable overlaps. This was the BAC that gave Atlas the most trouble.</p

Illustration of the technique that identifies reliable overlaps: (a) a scenario where a genome contains two copies of a repeat region R.

<p>The correct positions of reads A, B, C and D are shown. (b) A “fork” in the overlaps. (c) a scenario where reads A and D have the same sequencing error at the same base.</p

Two alignments of assemblies to the finished sequence of BAC GMEZ.

<p>The original Atlas assembly created a single scaffold. The UMD+Atlas assembly of GMEZ assembled a 26 Kb section from the middle of the bigger scaffold into a separate Scaffold 1. Note that the large scaffold gap in the Scaffold 2 is estimated correctly. This UMD+Atlas assembly used reliable overlaps. This was the BAC that gave UMD+Atlas the most trouble and the only case where UMD+Atas assembly had two scaffolds.</p

A local case study of two contrasting adjacent environments — False Bay (represented here by Muizenberg) which is an embayment mostly protected from coastal upwelling, and Kommetjie located on the exposed Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula where wind-driven upwelling is prevalent.

<p>The <i>in situ</i> temperatures and satellite-derived SST data (MODIS Terra and Patherfinder) are presented in the form of a whisker-box plot (± 1 SD around the mean).</p

Alongshore seasonal trends (February = summer; August = winter) for <i>in situ</i> temperatures on the south coast of South Africa and concomitant biases in equivalent satellite-derived SST products: (a) indicates the locations of measurement sites; (b) <i>in situ</i> temperature with annual mean, summer and winter climatologies; (c, d) relative biases in the equivalent satellite-derived products of Pathfinder and MODIS Terra.

<p>The coloured lines in (c) and (d) depict the bias measured at 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 km from the coast (see key).</p

(a) Interpolated summertime inshore <i>in situ</i> temperature data for the entire coast between measurement sites 1-87 (Port Nolloth to Sodwana Bay).

<p>These same data are also plotted in the lower panel (b) to further highlight the alongshore gradients. The middle and upper panels in (b) show the seasonal mean monthly <i>in situ</i> temperature for August and February respectively representing winter and summer.</p