The sustainability ballast framework for design of remote electrification

The UN sustainable development goal No 7 aims to achieve affordable and clean energy for all, but this is not yet achieved for approximately one billion people in remote communities. Small scale systems can provide benefits, but existing approaches are primarily top-down ap-proaches that are developed by experts, and focus on the electrical engineering, economics, and policy aspects. These are not always successful, because the sociological aspects are overlooked. A new approach to addressing remote energy development is required that better addresses the societal component. The objective was to develop a conceptual framework whereby the sociologi-cal values of indigenous communities were better included in electrification decision-making.A grounded theory approach was used to interview members of a rural indigenous community and identify key features of their world view. Several categories of values were identified, referred to as ’ballasts’. The idea of balance between these was a strong theme that emerged from the community discussion. A composite index was then constructed. Case study results are presented for a remote rural Amazonian community, Kabakaburi in Guyana. Nine sustainability ballasts were identified as part of the indigenous community’s world view: biological capacity, social capacity, autonomy, equity & equality, electric utility, health, education, communication, and products and services. This paper develops a new framework to include the values and world-view aspects of indigenous communities in electrification decision-making

Preclinical evaluation of transcriptional targeting strategies for carcinoma of the breast in a tissue slice model system

INTRODUCTION: In view of the limited success of available treatment modalities for metastatic breast cancer, alternative and complementary strategies need to be developed. Adenoviral vector mediated strategies for breast cancer gene therapy and virotherapy are a promising novel therapeutic platform for the treatment of breast cancer. However, the promiscuous tropism of adenoviruses (Ads) is a major concern. Employing tissue specific promoters (TSPs) to restrict transgene expression or viral replication is an effective way to increase specificity towards tumor tissues and to reduce adverse effects in non-target tissues such as the liver. In this regard, candidate breast cancer TSPs include promoters of the genes for the epithelial glycoprotein 2 (EGP-2), cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2), α-chemokine SDF-1 receptor (stromal-cell-derived factor, CXCR4), secretory leukoprotease inhibitor (SLPI) and survivin. METHODS: We employed E1-deleted Ads that express the reporter gene luciferase under the control of the promoters of interest. We evaluated this class of vectors in various established breast cancer cell lines, primary breast cancer cells and finally in the most stringent preclinical available substrate system, constituted by precision cut tissue slices of human breast cancer and liver. RESULTS: Overall, the CXCR4 promoter exhibited the highest luciferase activity in breast cancer cell lines, primary breast cancer cells and breast cancer tissue slices. Importantly, the CXCR4 promoter displayed a very low activity in human primary fibroblasts and human liver tissue slices. Interestingly, gene expression profiles correlated with the promoter activities both in breast cancer cell lines and primary breast cancer cells. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the CXCR4 promoter has an ideal 'breast cancer-on/liver-off' profile, and could, therefore, be a powerful tool in Ad vector based gene therapy or virotherapy of the carcinoma of the breast

Electrification in Remote Communities: Assessing the Value of Electricity Using a Community Action Research Approach in Kabakaburi, Guyana

PROBLEM—Provision of electric services in remote communities operating a subsistence economy has been challenging both for policy-makers and engineers. The value of electricity services and the choice structures in remote economies are not well understood. NEED—There are several technical, economic, and environmental challenges to the top-down approach of electrification. There is a need for methods that can integrate multiple dimensions of social development that can fit the environmental, economic, and technical aspects of community development. APPROACH—To create a system that best fits with the rural community, a bottom-up approach is recommended; this depends on community participation to provide a coherent from-the-ground-up decision-making framework for rural residents, engineers, and policy-makers. OUTCOMES—We have developed a from-the-ground-up community participation approach to power system design, where the community activity system is studied before investigating energy development options and assessing the risks and benefits from the perspective of the people in the community. We present the approach called Community Access Resource for Electricity Sustainability (CARES), with its foundation in action research methodology to explore the values in the community, the valued electricity services (VES) that the community feel they need, and the way the community adopts the different value types through problem-solving. We conclude that the CARES approach provides rural residents, engineers, and policy-makers with a new bottom-up approach to rural electrification in remote economies. IMPLICATIONS—The implications of this design calls for designers to extend their workspace beyond the design office and to facilitate with remote communities in devising solutions that best fit their needs. ORIGINALITY—Original contributions are the identification of the different value types and VES from-the-ground-up, and the integration of these into a gamified, interactive, and virtual-reality setting for participants to play through and discuss major consequences from which prudent decisions for development can be made. Additionally, we have proposed a new cost index for the feasibility assessment of rural electrification projects

Assessment of personal travel adaptive capacity using a participatory survey approach

Fuel supply issues have the potential to cause significant travel behaviour change as pressure on oil production spare capacity increases into the future. Transportation planners need information on the transport options available to people and their ability to change to reduce fuel demand. This paper investigates a new transport parameter, travel adaptive capacity, the capability to reduce fuel demand without reducing participation in activities. An online survey, the Travel Adaptive Capacity Assessment (TACA), was used to capture travel activities in a normal week. The interactive survey asks for selection of up to three possible alternatives for each trip including modes, destinations and doing the activity without travel. We propose that these alternatives an be used to calculate travel adaptive capacity (TAC). The survey was conducted in the city of Christchurch and the small rural town of Oamaru, New Zealand. The survey results show a surprisingly high adaptive capacity for a cohort with normally very high level of personal automobile use. We report statistical relationships between adaptive capacity and transport, demographic and geographic factors

Rotordynamic modelling and analysis of a radial inflow turbine rotor-bearing system

One of the challenging aspects of radial turbine design and manufacturing is vibration and stability. Rotordynamic analysis was performed on a rotor-bearing system of a 1 kWe radial inflow turbine. The objective of rotordynamic analysis is to determine suitable system configuration for stable operation in the design process. The rotor and blade design were previously developed using ANSYS Structural module which provides the mass and inertia of the complex blade geometry for the rotordynamic analysis. A simulation model with concentrated mass and inertia was built for the rotating structure using ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL). Modal and mass unbalance response analyses were carried out with six cases having different shaft diameters and bearing arrangements. The best case was chosen for further parametric study of the effects of shaft length, blade residual unbalance, and bearing stiffness on the blade displacement amplitude. Blade clearance was then set to determine acceptable shaft length, bearing arrangement, blade unbalance quality, and bearing stiffness