Enhanced Vertical Ground Heat Exchanger Model for Whole Building Energy Simulation

The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that buildings consume more than 40% of all energy used in the United States. This includes considering energy used for transportation and heavy industry. As a result, many people across the world have invested significant time and resources developing tools for predicting building performance so energy usage and costs can be optimized. One of these tools are whole building energy simulation (WBES) programs which model building geometry, building construction, and usage to estimate performance. WBES are used by 10's of thousands of architects, designers, and engineers throughout the world each day. Yet, despite this, WBES models for ground heat exchangers (GHE) suffer from a number of limitations. Often, these models rely on third-party tools to generate required data needed for simulation. They also are limited in the ability to model a significant number of common GHE configurations. This limits the abilities of designers to specify and accurately compare ground source heat pump systems to other common building conditioning systems.This study focuses on developing GHE models for use in WBES, which adds an important emphasis to minimize simulation time. In addition, the study seeks to eliminate the need for external tools to improve the accuracy of the simulation methods. This is done in three distinct parts.Load aggregation methods are characterized, a large parametric study is performed, and the results are summarized. The work performed makes recommendations for optimal load aggregation methods and parameters to minimize simulation time and maximize simulation accuracy.An enhanced ground heat exchanger model is developed and validated. The enhanced model allows users to simulate GHE at short and long simulation time steps. The model is validated against experimental data from a multi-flow rate thermal response test. A simplified dynamic borehole heat exchanger model is also developed and validated.A method for simulating the interference between thermally interacting GHE is developed and validated. A case study is presented demonstrating the method usage

Risk Averse and Disinclined: What COVID Prison Releases Demonstrate About the Ability of the United States to Reduce Mass Incarceration

"Risk Averse and Disinclined" builds upon prior findings produced last year through the Institute's publication ?"Examining Prison Releases in Response to COVID: Lessons Learned for Reducing the Effects of Mass Incarceration." Through this new report, researchers present case studies of six states?—?Alabama, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Washington?—?to gain a more in-depth view of what legal mechanisms were available to jurisdictions and the factors that influenced whether they were willing or able to use those mechanisms to release people from prison during the pandemic. The findings of this report show that although jurisdictions have the power to make releases from prison using back-end discretion, they are unlikely to use it due to risk aversion stemming from the fear of public and political backlash should anyone who is released go on to commit a serious crime. Thus, the authors continue to conclude that back-end release mechanisms offer only a modest opportunity to reduce mass incarceration. Instead, state-level carceral policies that focus on diffusing responsibility for back-end release and reduce incarceration in the first place have the greatest chance of achieving long-term reductions in prison populations

Experimental Investigations and Design Tool Development for Surface Water Heat Pump Systems

This study reports on experiments which were performed on spiral-helical surface water heat exchangers. These heat exchangers, when used as part of a geothermal heat pump system, serve as an alternative means whereby the system can reject heat to or extract heat from the environment. These systems are known as surface water heat pump systems and they serve as a less expensive, yet effective application of geothermal energy. Prior to this work, there was little information available to designers of surface water heat pump system regarding the performance of these heat exchangers. This work serves to bridge some of the remaining gaps by correlating heat exchanger performance in heat rejection and heat extraction modes of operation. From these correlations, design graphs were developed to allow designers of surface water heat pump systems to accurately size the surface water heat exchanger.Mechanical Engineerin

Paediatric HERMES: European accreditation of training centres in paediatric respiratory medicine

HERMES: European accreditation of training centres in paediatric respiratory medicine http://ow.ly/ZBmUg

Blood screen findings in a two year cohort of newly arrived refugees to Sydney

Objectives To describe the prevalence of certain health conditions in newly arrived refugees to Sydney, and thereby help inform screening practices. Study type A clinical audit of routinely collected pathology results. Methods Demographics and pathology results from a nurse-led health assessment program for newly arrived refugees over the two years 2013 and 2014 were analysed. Prevalences of screened conditions were calculated and compared by countries of birth and other demographic features. A specific category of those from Middle Eastern countries was created for comparative analysis. Results Pathology results were analysed for 3307 persons from a total of 4768 seen by the program (69.4%). Anaemia was found in 6% of males and 7.6% of females. Vitamin D deficiency (1%) countries

Exploring the Use of Hospital and Community Mental Health Services among Newly Resettled Refugees

Importance: Resettled refugees in high-income countries represent a vulnerable population. It is known that refugees have high rates of trauma-related mental health issues; however, ad hoc research has generally revealed low rates of health services use among refugees. Such research usually samples a population at a single point in time and is based on targeted surveys. Because refugee populations change over time, such research becomes expensive and time-consuming for agencies interested in routinely publishing statistics of mental health services use among refugees. The linking of large administrative data sets to establish rates of use of mental health services among resettled refugees is a flexible and relatively inexpensive approach. Objective: To use data linkage to establish rates of mental health services use among resettled refugees relative to the general population. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study implemented data linkage from the Refugee Health Nurse Program for 10050 refugees who resettled in Sydney, Australia, from October 23, 2012, to June 8, 2017, with data concerning use of community mental health services and mental health hospitalization from New South Wales Health databases. Data were analyzed between June 1, 2019, and December 31, 2021. Main Outcomes and Measures: Rates of service contacts with community mental health services among the resettled refugees were compared with those of the general population by age, sex, and the most common International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, diagnosis codes. Length of community mental health service sessions and rates of mental health hospitalizations were also compared. Results: Among the 255 resettled refugees who had contacts with community mental health care services and were not missing data (median age, 35 [range, 4-80] years; 117 [64%] male and 138 [54%] female), 153 (60%) were born in Iraq and 156 (61%) were Arabic speaking. This population was less likely to use mental health services than the general population and had shorter community mental health consultations. The rate of contacts with community mental health services for depressive disorders among the resettled refugee population was 40% (95% CI, 33%-46%) lower than that among the general population. Rates of same-day hospitalization per 10000 person-years were not significantly different between the refugee population (4 [95% CI, 2-8]) and the general Australian population (7 [95% CI, 7-7]). However, the refugee population was 17% (95% CI, 6%-29%) more likely than the general Australian population to interact with the community mental health system for severe stress- and adjustment disorder-related diagnoses. Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that refugees who have resettled in Australia tend to use fewer mental health services than the general population except for services devoted to stress- and adjustment disorder-related diagnoses. These findings also suggest that it is possible to successfully leverage data linkage to study patterns of mental health services use among resettled refugees.</p

Using the CODEEVOLVER® directed evolution platform to create improved enzymes for molecular diagnostics

Using advanced enzyme engineering technology, Codexis has developed practical, green manufacturing processes for a range of pharmaceutical intermediates and APIs, biologic drug discovery and food ingredients. Our enzyme engineering technology has produced a diverse array of enzymes that are operationally equivalent and complementary to the “standard” catalysts in the chemists’ tool box. Parallel optimization of enzyme, enzyme formulation, and chemical process continues to push the catalyst cost contribution lower, expanding the application of custom-made enzymes into larger volume opportunities. Recently, Codexis announced that it will offer high-performance enzymes for customers using next generation sequencing (NGS) for in vitro molecular diagnostic applications. Historically, NGS workflows relied on modestly engineered enzymes. As NGS is being pushed into new, more demanding applications, such as liquid biopsy and personalized medicine samples, more capable enzymes are required. Example of engineering an enzyme with improved analytical efficiency, processivity and fidelity while also reducing bias in preparation steps for NGS using the CodeEvolver directed evolution platform will be presente

Discordant MZ twins With Cleft Lip and Palate: a model for identifying genes in complex traits.

Monozygotic (MZ) twins may be discordant for complex traits due to differential environmental exposure in utero, epigenetic variability in imprinting, X chromosome inactivation, or stochastic effects. Occasionally MZ twins may be discordant for chromosomal and single gene disorders due to somatic mosaicism. For complex traits, which are due to the interactive effects of multiple genes and environmental factors, the affected twin of a discordant MZ pair offers the possibility for identifying somatic mutations in candidate genes. DNA sequencing of candidate genes in discordant MZ twins can identify those rare etiologic mutational events responsible for the different phenotypes since the confounding effects of common single nucleotide polymorphisms are eliminated, as DNA sequences should be identical in MZ pairs. In this report we describe the extensive DNA sequencing of 18 candidate genes in a sample of MZ and dizygotic (DZ) twins with nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate. We were unable to identify any somatic differences in approximately 34 Kb of DNA sequenced in 13 MZ pairs, for a total of approximately 900 Kb of sequence comparisons, supporting the hypothesis that nonetiologic posttwinning mutations are rare. While no etiologic variants were identified in this study, sequence comparisons of discordant MZ twins can serve as a tool for identifying etiologic mutations in clefting and other complex traits

Age-specific and compartment-dependent changes in mitochondrial homeostasis and cytoplasmic viscosity in mouse peripheral neurons

Mitochondria are dynamic bioenergetic hubs that become compromised with age. In neurons, declining mitochondrial axonal transport has been associated with reduced cellular health. However, it is still unclear to what extent the decline of mitochondrial transport and function observed during ageing are coupled, and if somal and axonal mitochondria display compartment-specific features that make them more susceptible to the ageing process. It is also not known whether the biophysical state of the cytoplasm, thought to affect many cellular functions, changes with age to impact mitochondrial trafficking and homeostasis. Focusing on the mouse peripheral nervous system, we show that age-dependent decline in mitochondrial trafficking is accompanied by reduction of mitochondrial membrane potential and intramitochondrial viscosity, but not calcium buffering, in both somal and axonal mitochondria. Intriguingly, we observe a specific increase in cytoplasmic viscosity in the neuronal cell body, where mitochondria are most polarised, which correlates with decreased cytoplasmic diffusiveness. Increasing cytoplasmic crowding in the somatic compartment of DRG neurons grown in microfluidic chambers reduces mitochondrial axonal trafficking, suggesting a mechanistic link between the regulation of cytoplasmic viscosity and mitochondrial dynamics. Our work provides a reference for studying the relationship between neuronal mitochondrial homeostasis and the viscoelasticity of the cytoplasm in a compartment-dependent manner during ageing