NEW YORK COURT OF APPEALS CASE COMPILATIONS: PEOPLE V. THOMPSON

PEOPLE V. THOMPSON (Decided November 14, 2002

MP 2009-09

As the price of traditional fossil fuels escalates, there is increasing interest in using renewable resources, such as biomass, to meet our energy needs. Biomass resources are of particular interest to communities in interior Alaska, where they are abundant (Fresco, 2006). Biomass has the potential to partially replace heating oil, in addition to being a possible source for electric power generation (Crimp and Adamian, 2000; Nicholls and Crimp, 2002; Fresco, 2006). The communities of Tanana and Dot Lake have already installed small Garn boilers to provide space heating for homes and businesses (Alaska Energy Authority, 2009). A village-sized combined heat and power (CHP) demonstration project has been proposed in North Pole. In addition, several Fairbanks area organizations are interested in using biomass as a fuel source. For example, the Fairbanks North Star Borough is interested in using biomass to supplement coal in a proposed coal-to-liquids project, the Cold Climate Housing Research Center is planning to test a small biomass fired CHP unit, and the University of Alaska is planning an upgrade to its existing coal-fired power plant that could permit co-firing with biomass fuels. The challenge for all of these projects is in ensuring that biomass can be harvested on both an economically and ecologically sustainable basis

Adolescent Deviance as a Function of Parents, Peers and Community Influence

Recent studies conflict as to the relative importance of parents and peers as causal agents in juvenile misbehavior. Hirschi and other proponents of social control theory see parental bonding as preventing involvement in delinquency; Sutherland, Short and others envision youth as having differential learning opportunities, and see deviant peers and other negative learning opportunities in the community as more contributory to participation in antisocial acts. Part of the discrepancy in findings relative to these two perspectives has to do with the different in the way concepts are measured, based on different areas of interest. This study attempts to contrast social-emotional measure of parental influence with measure of parental control (knowledge, supervision, communication and discipline) in an effort to demonstrate the importance of the effect of parental control on deviant behavior

Engaging Faculty and Reducing Costs by Leveraging Collections: A Pilot Project to Reduce Course Pack Use

INTRODUCTION Academic libraries have the privilege of serving many roles in the lives of their institutions. One role that is largely untapped is their ability to actively leverage their collections to support faculty teaching and to reduce student out-of-pocket costs by eliminating systemic double payment for course materials. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM/SERVICE This paper details a project by the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office (SCCO) at the University of Toronto that aimed to reduce this systemic double payment by leveraging collections and electronic reserves to provide a new service, the Zero-to-Low Cost Courses. Building on existing relationships with faculty, SCCO staff reached out to potential candidates, identified library licensed materials in their printed course packs, and created digital course packs which students could use at no cost. NEXT STEPS This article shares the results of the project and explores next steps in using existing library resources to actively reduce student course costs

Can ground source heat pumps perform well in Alaska?

The long heating season and cold soils of Alaska provide a harsh testing ground for ground source heat pumps (GSHPs), even those designed and marketed for colder climates. Fairbanks, Alaska has 7,509°C heating degree-days18 (13,517°F HDD65) and only 40°C cooling degree-days18 (72°F CDD65). This large and unbalanced heating load creates a questionable environment for GSHPs. In addition, soil temperatures average around freezing (0°C/32°F); the soil may be permafrost year-round, just above freezing, or in an annual freeze-thaw cycle. In 2013 the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC) installed a GSHP at its facility in Fairbanks. The heat pump replaced an oil-fired condensing boiler heating a 464 m2 (5,000 ft2)office space. The ground heat exchanger was installed in a marginal area underlain with permafrost near 0°C (32°F). The intent of the installation was to observe and monitor the system over a 10-year period in order to develop a better understanding of the performance of GSHPs in ground with permafrost and to help inform future design. The system enjoyed one season of better-than-expected performance, averaging a COP of 3.7its first winter. By the third winter, the COP had dropped to an annual average of 3.2 and ice had started to develop in the area around the heat extraction coils. A combination of physical monitoring and numerical modeling is used to evaluate the heat pump system

Building dynamic thermal model calibration using the Energy House facility at Salford

Thermal modelling tools have widely been used in the construction industry at the design stage, either for new build or retrofitting existing buildings, providing data for informed decision-making. The accuracy of thermal models has been subject of much research in recent decades due to the potential large difference between predicted and ‘in-use’ performance – the so called ‘performance gap’. A number of studies suggested that better representation of building physics and operation details in thermal models can improve the accuracy of predictions. However, full-scale model calibration has always been challenging as it is difficult to measure all the necessary boundary conditions in an open environment. Thus, the Energy House facility at the University of Salford – a full-sized end terrace house constructed within an environmental chamber – presents a unique opportunity to conduct full-scale model calibration. The aim of this research is to calibrate Energy House thermal models using various full-scale measurements. The measurements used in this research include the co-heating tests for a whole house retrofit case study, and thermal resistance from window coverings and heating controls with thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs). Thermal models were created using an IESVE (Integrated Environment Solutions Virtual Environment). IESVE is a well-established dynamic thermal simulation tool widely used in analysing the dynamic response of a building based on the hourly input of weather data. The evidence from this study suggests that thermal models using measured U-values and infiltration rates do perform better than the models using calculated thermal properties and assumed infiltration rates. The research suggests that better representations of building physics help thermal models reduce the performance gap. However, discrepancies still exist due to various other underlying uncertainties which need to be considered individually with each case. In relative terms, i.e., variations in percentage, the predictions from thermal models tend to be more reliable than predicting the absolute numbers

Spatial replicates as an alternative to temporal replicates for occupancy modelling when surveys are based on linear features of the landscape

1- Occupancy estimates can inform biodiversity managers about the distribution of elusive species, such as the Pyrenean desman Galemys pyrenaicus, a small semi-aquatic mammal that lives along streams. Occupancy models rely on replication within a sampling site and provide estimates of the probability of detection. However, we still do not know how occupancy and detection estimates obtained from spatial vs. temporal replications differ or the appropriateness of using one or the other when cost and logistics make one approach prohibitive. Recently, the Markovian occupancy model has been developed to analyse adjacent spatial replicates and to test for spatial dependence between them. This model has already been applied to large and highly mobile mammals using trails, but never tested for any species with linear home ranges. 2- We compared detection and occupancy estimates obtained from both temporal and spatial sampling designs that were subsequently organized into four data configurations (sites with both spatial and temporal replicates, adjacent spatial replicates only, temporal replicates only at the segment and site scales). From that, five occupancy models with different assumptions (the standard occupancy model, the standard multiscale model, the multiscale model with Markovian process for detection, the Markovian detection model and the Markovian occupancy model) were used. We also assessed which occupancy model was the most appropriate for each data configuration to determine whether it is necessary to incorporate correlation into models. 3 - We found that the estimated detection probabilities were relatively high (≥0·58) and similar when the same model was applied to each data configuration. 4 - Spatial replication weakly underestimated occupancy. But when using this design, the Markovian occupancy model was the most supported and minimized the underestimation of occupancy, highlighting a spatial dependence between adjacent replicates. 5 - Synthesis and applications. We show that a survey based on adjacent spatial replicates for a mammal living along linear features of the landscape is a good compromise between cost and occupancy estimates, while using the Markovian occupancy model to estimate detection and occupancy. Our finding may have wider applications for the monitoring of species especially when temporal replicates are difficult or unrealistic. Spatial design, for surveys based on sign detection, could thus be applied for species with linear home ranges or when surveys are constrained by linear habitats