Building a Sustainable Business Community in Cherry Hill, NJ

The planet\u27s ability to provide ecological services will depend on whether sustainable design is integrated into the fabric of how humanity interacts with the natural world. In the business context, companies moving towards sustainability consider their current needs and those of the future when developing their business models. A sustainable business model will ensure the profitability, social, and ecological value of the company. While there is growing interest in developing sustainable business models, small to mid-sized companies have struggled with implementing this operational system due to a lack of resources. As sustainable business practices grow, these companies can look towards several large businesses for models. In addition, there are a growing number of governmental agencies and NGOs that teach sustainable design. One such entity is Sustainable Cherry Hill, an NGO located in Cherry Hill, NJ that engages local business leaders and helps them integrate sustainable design into everyday business practices. This project developed the sustainability template for Sustainable Cherry Hill which will also be incorporated into Cherry Hill Township\u27s efforts to build a sustainable business community. The project analyzes several business models of sustainable design and instructional programs that teach others how to move towards sustainability. The result is a template that will help the South Jersey business community become more energy efficient, conserve water, reduce waste and decrease toxins and pollutants

The intercalibration of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter at the test beam

During summer 2006, 9 supermodules of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) have been exposed to an electron beam at the CERN SPS north area facility. Each supermodule contains 1700 crystals. The intercalibration coefficients of the different channels have been measured for each supermodule. The reproducibility of the intercalibration has been tested by measuring a supermodule twice. The intercalibration coefficients obtained in the electron beam have also been compared with those obtained with cosmic ray muons

Are Animals Capable of Using Human Language?

A study focusing on animals\u27 capability to learn and use human language for communication, understanding the process of language acquisition, the history and evolution of language, alongside findings from experiments involving gorillas, bonobos, parrots and horses

Absence of Metabolic Cross-correction in Tay-Sachs Cells: IMPLICATIONS FOR GENE THERAPY

We have investigated the ability of a receptor-mediated gene transfer strategy (cross-correction) to restore ganglioside metabolism in fibroblasts from Tay-Sachs (TS) patients in vitro. TS disease is a GM2 gangliosidosis attributed to the deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme beta-hexosaminidase A (HexA) (beta-N-acetylhexosaminidase, EC ). The hypothesis is that transduced cells overexpressing and secreting large amounts of the enzyme would lead to a measurable activity in defective cells via a secretion-recapture mechanism. We transduced NIH3T3 murine fibroblasts with the LalphaHexTN retroviral vector carrying the cDNA encoding for the human Hex alpha-subunit. The Hex activity in the medium from transduced cells was approximately 10-fold higher (up to 75 milliunits) than observed in non-transduced cells. TS cells were cultured for 72 h in the presence of the cell medium derived from the transduced NIH3T3 cells, and they were analyzed for the presence and catalytic activity of the enzyme. Although TS cells were able to efficiently uptake a large amount of the soluble enzyme, the enzyme failed to reach the lysosomes in a sufficient quantity to hydrolyze the GM2 ganglioside to GM3 ganglioside. Thus, our results showed that delivery of the therapeutic HexA was not sufficient to correct the phenotype of TS cells