Putting a Floor on Energy Savings: Comparing State Energy Efficiency Resource Standards

Energy efficiency resource standards (EERS) refer to policies that require utilities and other covered entities to achieve quantitative goals for reducing energy use by a certain year. EERS policies generally apply to electricity and natural gas sales and electricity peak demand, though they also cover other energy sources in Europe. Our study aggregates information about the requirements of existing EERS policies for electricity sales in the United States. We convert quantitative goals into comparable terms to compare the nominal stringency of EERS programs across states. EERS programs also differ in their nonquantitative requirements, including flexibility measures, measurement and verification programs, and penalties and positive incentives. We compare the U.S. policies to similar policies in the European Union and discuss important policy issues, including exogenous changes in fuel prices and issues with utility management of energy efficiency programs.energy efficiency, electricity, energy efficiency resource standards, state regulation

INFO2009 - Team 'DROP TABLE groups;

Edshare for INFO2009 coursework 2 - Team 'DROP TABLE groups

Operationalising factors that explain the emergence of infectious diseases : A case study of the human campylobacteriosis epidemic

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Gene Expression Profiling of Bronchoalveolar Lavage Cells Preceding a Clinical Diagnosis of Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction.

BackgroundChronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction (CLAD) is the main limitation to long-term survival after lung transplantation. Although CLAD is usually not responsive to treatment, earlier identification may improve treatment prospects.MethodsIn a nested case control study, 1-year post transplant surveillance bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid samples were obtained from incipient CLAD (n = 9) and CLAD free (n = 8) lung transplant recipients. Incipient CLAD cases were diagnosed with CLAD within 2 years, while controls were free from CLAD for at least 4 years following bronchoscopy. Transcription profiles in the BAL cell pellets were assayed with the HG-U133 Plus 2.0 microarray (Affymetrix). Differential gene expression analysis, based on an absolute fold change (incipient CLAD vs no CLAD) >2.0 and an unadjusted p-value ≤0.05, generated a candidate list containing 55 differentially expressed probe sets (51 up-regulated, 4 down-regulated).ResultsThe cell pellets in incipient CLAD cases were skewed toward immune response pathways, dominated by genes related to recruitment, retention, activation and proliferation of cytotoxic lymphocytes (CD8+ T-cells and natural killer cells). Both hierarchical clustering and a supervised machine learning tool were able to correctly categorize most samples (82.3% and 94.1% respectively) into incipient CLAD and CLAD-free categories.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that a pathobiology, similar to AR, precedes a clinical diagnosis of CLAD. A larger prospective investigation of the BAL cell pellet transcriptome as a biomarker for CLAD risk stratification is warranted

Usefulness of gene expression profiling of bronchoalveolar lavage cells in acute lung allograft rejection.

BackgroundChronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) is the main limitation to long-term survival after lung transplantation. Because effective therapies are lacking, early identification and mitigation of risk factors is a pragmatic approach to improve outcomes. Acute cellular rejection (ACR) is the most pervasive risk factor for CLAD, but diagnosis requires transbronchial biopsy, which carries risks. We hypothesized that gene expression in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cell pellet (CP) could replace biopsy and inform on mechanisms of CLAD.MethodsWe performed RNA sequencing on BAL CPs from 219 lung transplant recipients with A-grade ACR (n = 61), lymphocytic bronchiolitis (n = 58), infection (n = 41), or no rejection/infection (n = 59). Differential gene expression was based on absolute fold difference >2.0 and Benjamini-adjusted p-value ≤0.05. We used the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery Bioinformatics Resource for pathway analyses. For classifier modeling, samples were randomly split into training (n = 154) and testing sets (n = 65). A logistic regression model using recursive feature elimination and 5-fold cross-validation was trained to optimize area under the curve (AUC).ResultsDifferential gene expression identified 72 genes. Enriched pathways included T-cell receptor signaling, natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity, and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction. A 4-gene model (AUC = 0.72) and classification threshold defined in the training set exhibited fair performance in the testing set; accuracy was 76%, specificity 82%, and sensitivity 60%. In addition, classification as ACR was associated with worse CLAD-free survival (hazard ratio = 2.42; 95% confidence interval = 1.29-4.53).ConclusionsBAL CP gene expression during ACR is enriched for immune response pathways and shows promise as a diagnostic tool for ACR, especially ACR that is a precursor of CLAD

PESTICIDE TREATED CROP SEEDS AND TILLAGE ALTER SEED COAT FUNGAL COMMUNITIES ON AMARANTHUS RETROFLEXUS IN A MAIZE-SOYBEAN CROPPING SYSTEM

Soil fungi, by damaging or decaying weed seeds in the soil seed bank, are important agents of biological weed control. Pesticide seed treatments (PST) that include fungicides may alter the communities of soil fungi that colonize weed seeds in the soil and therefore the nature and efficacy of this important source of biological weed control. Tillage, by disrupting fungal networks and spatially redistributing the fungicides associated with PST throughout the soil profile, may mediate the effects of PST on seed coat fungi. We conducted a two-year experiment at two sites with two levels of PST (treated and untreated crop seeds) and three levels of tillage (Full, Strip, and No-Till) and analyzed the fungal community on Amaranthus retroflexsus seed coats. We found that at our no-till site, fungal communities were less diverse in the presence of PST. We also found simplification of seed coat fungal communities between tillage treatments. These results suggest that both PST and tillage may modify the weed control effects of soil fungal communities and these effects should be further studied and considered when employing these common management practices

Revealing hidden topologies in photonic crystals

This thesis is part of an effort to bring together two very active fields of physics: band topology and photonics. The field of band topology has revealed exotic phenomena such as robust, unidirectional edge states that occur at the interfaces between materials that belong to different topological phases. The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 was awarded to Thouless, Haldane, and Kosterlitz, for predicting such phases in electronic systems where the topological edge states may revolutionise electronics and quantum computing. There is now great interest in reproducing such topological phases in photonics using photonic crystals: periodic nanostructures with tunable photonic bands. Realising such topological edge states in photonic devices could revolutionise optical data transport and optical quantum computing. In this thesis, we focus on two symmetry-protected topological phases that have been difficult to realise in photonics: the quantum spin-Hall effect (QSHE, protected by the fermionic time-reversal symmetry of electrons) and square-root topological semimetals (protected by chiral symmetry, also known as sublattice symmetry). We introduce a new topological index for C2T symmetric crystals that emulate the QSHE using the angular momentum of light to mimic the spin of electrons. For example, in 2015 Wu & Hu proposed a photonic analogue of the QSHE where the crystalline symmetries and bosonic time-reversal symmetries of the photons generated a pseudo-fermionic time-reversal symmetry. Subsequent works suggested that this crystal was a trivial phase rather than a non-trivial QSHE phase. However, we believe that our new topological index demonstrates the non-trivial QSHE-like nature of the photonic crystal introduced by Wu & Hu while accounting for all of the valence bands determined from full-wave calculations. We then study the topology of networks of voids and narrow connecting channels that are formed by the space between closely spaced perfect conductors. In photonics, chiral symmetry is often broken by long-range interactions, but Vanel et al 2017 showed that such void-channel networks can be mapped to analagous mass-spring systems in an asymptotically rigorous manner and therefore have only short-range interactions. We demonstrate that topological tight-binding models, such as square-root semimetals, can be reproduced in these void-channel networks with appropriate boundary conditions. Finally, we discuss an interesting application of closely spaced nanoscopic metallic particles in the mid-to-far infrared and larger wavelengths. We show that despite being composed of highly dispersive and lossy metals, the effective dielectrics are virtually dispersion-free throughout the infrared spectrum and can be even more transparent than natural dielectrics such as germanium in the far-infrared. The effective index can be tuned locally, allowing us to design gradient-index lenses where light is guided by a continuously varied local refractive index. We propose a novel gradient-index lens that exploits the simultaneous transparency and high metallic filling fraction of the effective dielectrics to create intense ‘doubly-enhanced’ hotspots where light is focused on the microscale and the electric field ‘squeezed’ between the metallic particles on the nanoscale.Open Acces

Comprehensive Dissection of PDGF-PDGFR Signaling Pathways in PDGFR Genetically Defined Cells

Despite the growing understanding of PDGF signaling, studies of PDGF function have encountered two major obstacles: the functional redundancy of PDGFRα and PDGFRβ in vitro and their distinct roles in vivo. Here we used wild-type mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF), MEF null for either PDGFRα, β, or both to dissect PDGF-PDGFR signaling pathways. These four PDGFR genetically defined cells provided us a platform to study the relative contributions of the pathways triggered by the two PDGF receptors. They were treated with PDGF-BB and analyzed for differential gene expression, in vitro proliferation and differential response to pharmacological effects. No genes were differentially expressed in the double null cells, suggesting minimal receptor-independent signaling. Protean differentiation and proliferation pathways are commonly regulated by PDGFRα, PDGFRβ and PDGFRα/β while each receptor is also responsible for regulating unique signaling pathways. Furthermore, some signaling is solely modulated through heterodimeric PDGFRα/β

Resonance Enhanced Photodissociation Spectroscopy Of Auag+ Reveals Isotopic Dependance On Photodissociation

\begin{wrapfigure}{l}{0pt} \includegraphics[scale=0.8]{agau_two_exp_spectra_3.eps} \end{wrapfigure} Bimetallic materials comprised of gold and silver have useful optical and electronic properties, which are complicated by quantum mechanical, relativistic, and isotopic effects. To provide a bottom-up perspective on these larger systems, the smallest monocation comprised of gold and silver---diatomic AuAg+---is spectroscopically probed using resonance enhanced photodissociation (REPD). The $^{197}$Au$^{107}$Ag$^{+}$ and $^{197}$Au$^{109}$Ag$^{+}$ isotopologues are confined in a cryogenically cooled (ca. 5 K) quadrupole ion trap and are exposed to tunable light while detecting Au+ photofragment ions using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Electronic spectra in the UV exhibit a transition from the X$^{2}$$\Sigma$$^{+}_{1/2}$ ground state to an excited state that is yet to be assigned. Vibronic progressions for this transition extend over more than 30 quanta for both isotopologues, but with striking differences in band intensities (see Figure). This difference in photodissociation yield between the two isotopologues arises because the vibronic energies and associated wavefunctions depend on the reduced mass, leading to a difference in the coupling of the excited state levels and the repulsive electronic state that leads to dissociation. The observed photodissociation intensities for $^{197}$Au$^{107}$Ag$^{+}$ and $^{197}$Au$^{109}$Ag$^{+}$ are successfully modelled by calculating respective vibronic energies and wavefunctions of their bound and dissociative electronic states