Synergy: An Energy Monitoring and Visualization System

The key to becoming a more sustainable society is first learning to take responsibility for the role we play in energy consumption. Real-time energy usage gives energy consumers a sense of responsibility over what they can do to accomplish a much larger goal for the planet, and practically speaking, what they can do to lower the cost to their wallets. Synergy is an energy monitoring and visualization system that enables users to gather information about the energy consumption in a building – small or large – and display that data for the user in real-time. The gathered energy usage data is processed on the edge before being stored in the cloud. The two main benefits of edge processing are issuing electricity hazard warnings immediately and preserving user privacy. In addition to being a scalable solution that intended for use in individual households, commercial offices and city power grids, Synergy is open-source so that it can be implemented more widely. This paper contains a system overview as well as initial finding based on the data collected by Synergy before assessing the impact the system can have on society

A Whitehall perspective on decentralisation in England’s emerging territories

Decentralisation is a key thread running through current UK policy making. The Coalition Government has abolished New Labour’s regional legacy in favour of a new set of strategies around growth and development that has tapped into the localist agenda. Drawing on a series of recent interviews conducted with civil servants, this article explores government initiatives aimed at enhancing local autonomy in England and provides new empirical insights into decentralisation from a Whitehall perspective. It examines departmental aspirations for decentralised structures and Whitehall perceptions of the capacity of local arrangements to successfully manage territorial development in an era of austerity. The article concludes that, in the fields of economic development, planning and transport, there are signs of enhanced local policy and fiscal autonomy. However, there are different levels of enthusiasm for decentralisation across and within Whitehall departments that continue to undermine a more cohesive approach. </jats:p

Evaluation of the chronological impact heat stress has on swine intestinal function and integrity

Heat stress (HS) is a physiological condition when animals or humans can no longer regulate their internal euthermic temperature. When livestock and humans are subjected to this environmental stress, it can be detrimental to health, well-being and performance, and if severe enough even death. Swine are particularly susceptible to HS, costing the industry millions of dollars annually in lost production and carcass quality. One of the major organs affected by HS is the gastrointestinal tract. Heat stress reduces intestinal function and integrity, increases risk of endotoxemia and causes metabolic dysfunction. Together, these issues antagonize pig performance and health. Therefore, the overall objective of this dissertation was to chronologically characterize how a growing pig first perceives and initially copes with a severe heat-load. Additionally, we also determined the involvement of reduced feed intake utilizing a thermal neutral pair-fed to HS feed intake model. Knowing that HS alters intestinal integrity and function, this dissertation also assess the ability of an organic zinc source (ZnAA) as a nutritional mitigation strategy for HS in pigs. To address these objectives, the thesis has been organized into four research chapters. In the first study, (Chapter 2, 24 h of HS), pigs experienced changes in intestinal integrity, altered expression of tight junction proteins, increased circulating endotoxin concentrations and markers of cellular stress (heat shock and hypoxia response). Interestingly, under HS conditions, glucose transport machinery was also upregulated. In Chapter 3 (0-6 h of HS), pigs exposed to a short duration of HS had increased body temperatures, reduced feed intake, changes in neuropeptide hormones, and lighter body weights compared to controls. These pigs also had compromised intestinal integrity, which was evident as early on as 2 h HS. By 6 h HS, the ileum was more severely affected compared to the colon. At 12 h HS (Chapter 4), the zinc-amino acid complex was able to lower core temperatures but had no other phenotypic effects compared to a control diet. The ZnAA also ameliorated some negative effects of HS on the intestine by reducing circulating endotoxin, increasing LPS-binding protein and improved metabolic markers (lower plasma urea nitrogen). Interestingly, many of the negative effects on intestinal integrity appear to be similar to that seen due to reduced nutrient intake as pair-fed and HS pigs at 12 h had a similar intestinal integrity profile. On the metabolic and oxidative stress side, however, feed intake appears to play less of a role as the intestinal proteomic profile appeared to be mainly impacted by HS alone (Chapter 5). Many of the proteins identified were involved in the cellular stress response, metabolism, and oxidative stress. In conclusion, heat stress directly and indirectly (via reduced feed intake) affects post-absorptive metabolism and intestinal integrity and both variables probably contribute to decreased growth parameters in young pigs

Understanding Institutional Racism

The concept of institutional racism is under attack. There was a brief period after the publication of the Macpherson Report in 1999 and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act of 2000 in which it appeared to have gained wide acceptance as a useful term for a pressing problem. Since then, a number of public figures have suggested that the use of the term institutional racism is unhelpful, and it is possible that the whole idea of institutions looking at their working practices to ensure they are fair may fall out of favour. And the brief period in which complex definitions of racism were accepted in the mainstream media may now be at an end

An emotional, intellectual and practical resource: black experiences and expertise on teaching about racism

This book brings together the experiences and expertise of eighteen scholars of colour, based in the USA or Canada, who teach about race and racism. The book attempts to speak to two different audiences and to achieve at least two different goals. Its first intended audience is other scholars of colour: it is to be seen as ‘a site of safety and sanity, driving home the reality that they are not alone’ as coeditor George Yancy puts it in his introduction (p. 9). But the editors also hope that it will be used as a resource for white scholars like me, who address race and racism in their classrooms. In terms of its goals, it seeks to be a place in which the experiences of black scholars can be validated and indeed honoured. But it also has a role as a resource bank for a range of useful theoretical approaches, teaching materials and practical strategies for scholars from all backgrounds who wish to address racism in mainly white classrooms

Compiling the White Inventory: the practice of whiteness in a British primary school

‘Whiteness studies’ has become a significant theme in writing about ethnicity and education over the past decade. Unlike both multiculturalism and anti-racism, whiteness theorists suggest that whiteness can be seen not as a biological fact, but as a social construction, and seek to examine white behaviour and assumptions as a first step toward resisting that behaviour. While its place in the academic world seems secure, its theories have had a limited impact on practitioners, particularly in Britain. Despite urgent calls by many writers in the field of whiteness studies, the number of white teachers attempting to understand how their own ethnicity affects their work appears negligible. In this paper I seek to begin to address that problem by applying a model of white attitudes to my own thinking and behaviour as a white teacher in a multi-ethnic primary school. It is suggested that this act of recording and reporting on the taken-for-granted behaviour of whites must be the first step toward decentring whiteness, and thus of providing a more equitable education for all children