The implementation of energy sharing using a system of systems approach

There is an increasing demand for renewable energy and consumers need more procurement options to meet their needs. Energy sharing provides a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace where prosumer electricity is redistributed to fellow energy-sharing community participants. This redistribution of prosumer electricity provides consumers with additional electricity suppliers, while also decreasing the load on the utility company. Though significant progress has been made regarding research and implementation of energy sharing, there is still room for growth when evaluating energy-sharing communities and defining appropriate community coordination based on end-user needs. The first contribution in this work identified nine characteristics of energy-sharing communities as a decentralized complex adaptive system of systems (DCASoS). Considering each characteristic before determining community coordination is vital to ensure ample participation within the energy-sharing community. The second contribution was the exploration of a two-stage stochastic programming model as an alternative to the classic energy distribution business model. The third contribution compares three behavioral theories to identify the best fitting model to predict interest in participating in an energysharing community. This research provides companies with foundational knowledge to develop an energy-sharing community that both fulfills end-user satisfaction and increases robustness of electricity distribution business models --Abstract, page iv

Thoreau\u27s Melancholia, Walden\u27s Friendship, and Queer Agency

Walden queers its readers. While many have investigated Thoreau’s queerness, there has been little notice of Walden’s queerness. This project begins with a situational analysis that identifies the melancholic antecedents of Walden in Thoreau’s life and his choices that led to the illumination of his melancholia. Thoreau had already been experimenting with what Branka Arsić identified as “literalization.” Nevertheless, a period of crisis, detailed by Robert Milder, made him aware of what Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok have referred to as the melancholic’s blind skill of “demetaphorization.” I suggest that Thoreau exploited this skill to produce Walden’s unique ability to feed on and, as Henry Abelove and Henry Golemba have suggested, awaken its reader’s desires. I combine a close reading of Walden with selective study of the text’s reception. Walden delivers on Thoreau’s theory of friendship from his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Walden’s friendship with its reader is the agency that accomplishes what Henry Golemba and Lawrence Buell have noted as a blurring of the boundary between reader and text. To investigate this friendship and Walden’s accommodations of faux friendship, I construct a Burkean perspective by incongruity using research in the nature-writing and rhetoric disciplines that intersect with Thoreauvian studies. This incongruity is analyzed using not only Burke’s theories of literary form and literature as equipment for living, but also Deleuze’s process philosophy and Deleuze and Guattari’s analyses of the war machine and their spatial analysis. This project complexifies Erin Rand’s research on polemics, using Deleuze’s multiplicity not only to explain why polemics are unpredictable, but also to address what Sarah Hallenbeck has referred to as “the crisis of agency.” I suggest an expansion of José Esteban Muñoz’s research. The question of how one actually transitions from melancholia to disidentification cannot be adequately answered with terms like Stuart Hall’s ‘oppositional reading’ or Deleuze and Guattari’s ‘de/reterritorialization.’ I also suggest that queer utopian thinking and poststructuralism are more compatible than previously argued. This dissertation is itself a polemic, straining the possibilities of friendship in the service of queerness

NURS 230 Effectiveness of Florence Nightingale\u27s Environmental Theory

We have chosen to research the effectiveness of Florence Nightingale\u27s environmental theory

Development and piloting of a food-based intervention to increase vitamin E intake in pregnant women in a randomised controlled trial

Acknowledgement This study was funded by the University of Aberdeen and an unrestricted grant from Baxters Food Group Ltd. LC acknowledges funding from the RESAS programme of the Scottish Government.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Perceptions of Nigerian healthcare workers towards hand hygiene: a qualitative study

Introduction: hand hygiene (HH) is an effective measure to reduce healthcare-associated infections and the growing burden of antimicrobial resistance. There is a need to understand the perceptions of healthcare workers towards its practice and the use of alcohol-based hand rubs (ABHR) to make recommendations to promote HH. Our study aimed to explore the perceptions of Nigerian healthcare workers towards HH and the use and availability of ABHR to suggest potential interventions to improve its practice as qualitative evidence in this field is limited in Nigeria. Methods: a qualitative study design was utilized to understand the perceptions of healthcare workers towards HH and the use of ABHR at Adeoyo Maternity Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. Purposive sampling was used to recruit nineteen healthcare workers who were interviewed. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data generated. Results: five themes emerged including discrepancies in what constitutes HH practice as participants, motivation for HH practice, a good knowledge of timing as regards practice, barriers to good practice and evidence of poor practice. Conclusion: while many healthcare workers know about HH and self-reported compliance towards it seems to be high, knowledge gaps, lack of resources, absence of regulations and poor working conditions were impediments to the successful implementation of HH practices. We recommend that hospitals institute well-articulated HH regulations, continuous education and training of healthcare workers. Hospitals should also ensure adequate provision of resources for hand hygiene and institute a continuous monitoring and feedback program to evaluate compliance with regulations

Covid-19 is an opportunity for gender equality within the workplace and at home

Could covid-19 help unravel gender norms

The Lived Experience of Losing a Sibling through Murder

This study explores the grief experiences of young adults in the aftermath of the murder of a sibling. Three young adults were recruited to participate in interviews in which they described their lived experience of loss. Data collection and the subsequent analyses were guided by a phenomenological research design and resulted in the identification of seven major themes, namely (1) shock and disbelief, (2) recollection, guilt and self-blame, (3) rupture and fragmentation, (4) support, (5) justice and revenge, (6) reformulation, and (7) resilience, healing and growth. These themes are discussed with reference to the findings of other documented studies, and the implications for practitioners working with bereaved siblings of murder victims pointed to. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, May 2010, Volume 10, Edition

Armed conflict and the mental health of children

Armed conflicts, defined as ‘any organised dispute that involves the use of weapons, violence, or force, whether within national borders or beyond them, and whether involving state actors or nongovernment entities’ (Kadir et al., 2018: 2), are said to impact one in 10 children worldwide with estimates of around 230 million children living in areas affected by conflict (UNICEF, 2015). In this chapter, we will explore the impact of armed conflict on children’s mental health briefly, outlining community based and trauma-based psychosocial interventions. We conclude by offering a critique of Western focused psychosocial interventions, highlighting the importance of culturally responsive interventions, which take on board, locally socially constructed ideas of healing and trauma

Early childhood education and care for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey

Book chapter - No abstract available

Nomadic peoples and access to healthcare

Nomadic peoples are diverse and heterogenous groups who have high levels of mobility and move from place to place, often with their livestock, in search of resources, work and food. Examples of nomadic or mobile peoples are African pastoralist groups such as the Turkana, as well as the Bedouin, and Mongolian Herders. It is difficult to estimate the number of nomadic peoples globally, due to their high level of mobility, and because they often inhabit remote and isolated places (Wild et al., 2019). In relation to nomadic pastoralists, some estimates put the number at 20 million pastoral households (de Haan et al., 1997: cited in FAO, 2016) or 200 million pastoralist individuals (Rota and Sperandini, 2009). These latter numbers, however, do not include other nomadic peoples, such as San hunter gatherers or groups such as Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers who have cultural traditions of nomadism. Access to healthcare is often highlighted as being problematic for nomadic peoples and is said to contribute to poor health outcomes. This chapter will explore access to healthcare for nomadic peoples, and link this to critical theory in relation to marginalisation, invisibilisation, and social justice