A Short Guide to Setting Up a City Scale Retrofit Program

Buildings represent 38.9% of U.S. primary energy use and 38% of all CO2 emissions in the U.S. Though simple, relatively low-cost measures such as insulation, and lighting upgrades can be done in almost every building to reduce energy use and save money on utility bills, current retrofitting program capacity is limited. Most existing programs are either available only to income-eligible individuals or those with the money up-front to do the work. Furthermore, many current retrofitting programs only create low-wage, short-term jobs rather than providing pathways into sustainable careers in construction and green building. Clearly, a new model is needed. This guide by Green For All and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy provides a model for designing and implementing weatherization and retrofitting programs on a citywide scale, with a goal of making such retrofits available to all and realize their potential to address climate change, put people to work, and reduce our energy bills

The Use of a Book Club to Promote Biomedical Trainee Professional Development

Professional development for biomedical doctoral and postdoctoral trainees is vital, especially due to the increase in individuals pursuing non-faculty career paths. We created a professional development-focused discussion group between trainees and faculty/staff by utilizing a book club format in which monthly small group meetings occurred over an 8-month period. A pre- and post-survey consisting of Likert and free-response questions was completed by participants. Results demonstrated that after the book club, trainees: 1) were more knowledgeable about a variety of career paths; 2) had improved awareness of their interests in relation to their career; 3) were more knowledgeable of their transferrable skills; 4) were more comfortable engaging with their PI and completing/updating an Individual Development Plan; 5) were more likely to find mentors in addition to their PI to address career specific needs; and 6) were more likely to seek opportunities to conduct informational interviews or experiential learning. Additionally, we found that faculty/staff: 1) were more knowledgeable about careers outside of academia; 2) had greater consideration for their mentee\u27s values and interests in relation to their career; 3) had a better understanding of their mentee\u27s transferable skills; and 4) were more comfortable engaging with their mentee about their career path and addressing an Individual Development Plan. Overall, we found that the utilization of a book club consisting of trainees and faculty/staff as a professional development tool was beneficial for both groups of participants, and this format is feasible for use in biomedical education professional development

Off-Highway Gasoline Consuption Estimation Models Used in the Federal Highway Administration Attribution Process: 2008 Updates

This report is designed to document the analysis process and estimation models currently used by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to estimate the off-highway gasoline consumption and public sector fuel consumption. An overview of the entire FHWA attribution process is provided along with specifics related to the latest update (2008) on the Off-Highway Gasoline Use Model and the Public Use of Gasoline Model. The Off-Highway Gasoline Use Model is made up of five individual modules, one for each of the off-highway categories: agricultural, industrial and commercial, construction, aviation, and marine. This 2008 update of the off-highway models was the second major update (the first model update was conducted during 2002-2003) after they were originally developed in mid-1990. The agricultural model methodology, specifically, underwent a significant revision because of changes in data availability since 2003. Some revision to the model was necessary due to removal of certain data elements used in the original estimation method. The revised agricultural model also made use of some newly available information, published by the data source agency in recent years. The other model methodologies were not drastically changed, though many data elements were updated to improve the accuracy of these models. Note that components in the Public Use of Gasoline Model were not updated in 2008. A major challenge in updating estimation methods applied by the public-use model is that they would have to rely on significant new data collection efforts. In addition, due to resource limitation, several components of the models (both off-highway and public-us models) that utilized regression modeling approaches were not recalibrated under the 2008 study. An investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency's NONROAD2005 model was also carried out under the 2008 model update. Results generated from the NONROAD2005 model were analyzed, examined, and compared, to the extent that is possible on the overall totals, to the current FHWA estimates. Because NONROAD2005 model was designed for emission estimation purposes (i.e., not for measuring fuel consumption), it covers different equipment populations from those the FHWA models were based on. Thus, a direct comparison generally was not possible in most sectors. As a result, NONROAD2005 data were not used in the 2008 update of the FHWA off-highway models. The quality of fuel use estimates directly affect the data quality in many tables published in the Highway Statistics. Although updates have been made to the Off-Highway Gasoline Use Model and the Public Use Gasoline Model, some challenges remain due to aging model equations and discontinuation of data sources

Infant and child feeding practices: a preliminary investigation

The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.The objective of this preliminary investigation was to examine the feeding practices of infants and pre-school children in Adelaide, and thereby contribute to the development of appropriate preventive dental strategies. A stratified random sample of 160 two year old and three year old pre-school children in the Adelaide Statistical District was obtained. Information about feeding practices and use of comforters or ‘dummies’ was obtained through a self-administered questionnaire completed by parents of the selected children. Information was collected for the age periods of 0–3 months, 4–6 months, 7–12 months, 13–24 months and 25–36 months. Most of the children (81.8 per cent) were breast-fed at some stage. However the percentage of children being breast-fed decreased markedly across age periods, particularly to 13–24 months, when only 15.9 per cent of children were being breast-fed. Over half of the children had been bottle-fed with infant formula at some stage. The highest percentage of children being bottle-fed with infant formula occurred in the 4–6 months (42.6 per cent) closely followed by the 7–12 months age period (37.4 per cent). Nearly two-thirds of children were bottle-fed with cow's milk at some stage. The highest percentage of children being bottle-fed with cow's milk occurred in the 13–24 months age period (49.6 per cent). A quarter (24.5 per cent) of the children were put to bed at some stage with a bottle containing cariogenic fluids. The majority of children used a ‘dummy’ at some stage during both day-time and night-time. Parents are in need of advice on appropriate feeding patterns for infants and young children.Amjad H. Wyne,A. John Spencer and Fearnley S. Szuste

Improving medical students' attitudes towards the chronic sick: a role for social science research

<b>Background</b> Many medical students are negatively disposed toward the elderly and chronic sick. The present study assessed the impact of a community-based teaching initiative, the Life History Project, on students' attitudes to these groups. <p></p> <b>Methods</b> A questionnaire including Likert based responses and free text comments was distributed to all first-year MBChB students after completion of their Life History coursework. Data was analysed using SPSS and content analysis. <p></p> <b>Results</b> A high proportion of students believed the Life History Project had increased their understanding of both psychological and social aspects of health and illness and the role of the humanistic social sciences within this. We discovered that the Life History Project not only gave students first-hand experience of the elderly and chronic sick but also had a positive effect on their attitudes towards these groups. The qualitative free text comments corroborated these views. <p></p> <b>Conclusions</b> It is possible to positively influence medical students' attitudes towards these stigmatised groups; it is therefore important that we continue to enhance opportunities for learning about the impact of chronic illness on individuals and society throughout the curriculum

The Formation of the First Massive Black Holes

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are common in local galactic nuclei, and SMBHs as massive as several billion solar masses already exist at redshift z=6. These earliest SMBHs may grow by the combination of radiation-pressure-limited accretion and mergers of stellar-mass seed BHs, left behind by the first generation of metal-free stars, or may be formed by more rapid direct collapse of gas in rare special environments where dense gas can accumulate without first fragmenting into stars. This chapter offers a review of these two competing scenarios, as well as some more exotic alternative ideas. It also briefly discusses how the different models may be distinguished in the future by observations with JWST, (e)LISA and other instruments.Comment: 47 pages with 306 references; this review is a chapter in "The First Galaxies - Theoretical Predictions and Observational Clues", Springer Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Eds. T. Wiklind, V. Bromm & B. Mobasher, in pres

Accounting for quality improvement during the conduct of embedded pragmatic clinical trials within healthcare systems: NIH Collaboratory case studies

Embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) and quality improvement (QI) activities often occur simultaneously within healthcare systems (HCSs). Embedded PCTs within HCSs are conducted to test interventions and provide evidence that may impact public health, health system operations, and quality of care. They are larger and more broadly generalizable than QI initiatives, and may generate what is considered high-quality evidence for potential use in care and clinical practice guidelines. QI initiatives often co-occur with ePCTs and address the same high-impact health questions, and this co-occurrence may dilute or confound the ability to detect change as a result of the ePCT intervention. During the design, pilot, and conduct phases of the large-scale NIH Collaboratory Demonstration ePCTs, many QI initiatives occurred at the same time within the HCSs. Although the challenges varied across the projects, some common, generalizable strategies and solutions emerged, and we share these as case studies. KEY LESSONS: Study teams often need to monitor, adapt, and respond to QI during design and the course of the trial. Routine collaboration between ePCT researchers and health systems stakeholders throughout the trial can help ensure research and QI are optimally aligned to support high-quality patient-centered care

Bilateral inhibition of HAUSP deubiquitinase by a viral interferon regulatory factor protein

Herpesvirus-associated ubiquitin specific protease (HAUSP) regulates the stability of p53 and MDM2, implicating HAUSP as a therapeutic target for tuning p53-mediated anti-tumor activity. Here, we report the structural analysis of HAUSP with Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus vIRF4 and the discovery of two vIRF4-derived peptides, vif1 and vif2, as potent and selective HAUSP antagonists. This analysis reveals a bilateral belt-type interaction resulting in inhibition of HAUSP. The vif1 peptide binds the HAUSP TRAF domain, competitively blocking substrate binding, while the vif2 peptide binds both the HAUSP TRAF and catalytic domains, robustly suppressing its deubiquitination activity. Consequently, peptide treatments comprehensively blocked HAUSP, leading to p53-dependent cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in culture and tumor regression in xenograft mouse model. Thus, the virus has developed a unique molecular strategy to target the HAUSP-MDM2-p53 pathway, and these virus-derived short peptides represent biologically active HAUSP antagonists