Weatherization: A Step Towards Green Cities

Home heating is a basic necessity that comes at a very high cost, particularly for residents in the city of Buffalo. Weatherization is an efficient and affordable method for reducing energy costs by increasing home energy efficiency. Existing buildings are renovated to increase energy efficiency and decrease energy consumption. Promotion of weatherization programs provides the City with an essential opportunity to financially empower its most vulnerable residents, who are the least able to manage constantly rising heating and energy bills

A house 're-edified' - Thomas Sackville and the transformation of Knole 1605-1608

Thomas Sackville was a courtier and a politician during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. Shortly prior to his death in April 1608, Sackville began work on his largest architectural project, the transformation of the archbishops’ greathouse at Knole, near Sevenoaks in Kent. The house holds a seminal position in the landscape of country houses of the period, and as Sackville’s only surviving house, is an important monument to his ambitions as patron. However, Sackville’s significance as a patron has often been underplayed, in the same way that his position as a leading politician and a minister of state has often been seen as only a brief interlude between the hegemony of William and Robert Cecil – Sackville’s predecessor and successor as Lord Treasurer respectively. The research of this thesis focuses on Sackville’s transformation of his house at Knole, highlighting the fact that during his political apogee, Sackville was a leading patron of his day, who employed the finest artisans, craftsmen and artificers available to him. In the historiography of English architectural history, Knole is often sidelined, and seen as the last moment of Elizabethan building practice before the innovations of the Jacobean period. This not only underplays the complexity of the building’s development, but also detracts from what Thomas Sackville aimed to achieve during his campaign of building at Knole between 1605 and 1608. New evidence has afforded a fuller insight into Thomas Sackville’s role as patron and also the extent to which his numerous intellectual and cultural interests were brought to bear on the transformation of the house. This evidence suggests that what Sackville achieved at Knole was a remarkable synthesis of what was inherited from the existing fabric and what was newly built, and the product of this synthesis was a house that reflected both Sackville’s intellectual and political ambitions

Corrigendum : Different Strokes for Different Folks: The BodyMind Approach as a Learning Tool for Patients With Medically Unexplained Symptoms to Self-Manage

© 2019 Payne and Brooks. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.In the original article, there was an error regarding the cost of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). A correction has been made to the Abstract: “Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are common in both primary and secondary health care. It is gradually being acknowledged that there needs to be a variety of interventions for patients with MUS tomeet the needs of different groups of patients with such chronic long-termsymptoms. The proposed intervention described herewith is called The BodyMind Approach (TBMA) and promotes learning for self-management through establishing a dynamic and continuous process of emotional self-regulation. The problem is the mismatch between the patient’s mind-set and profile and current interventions. This theoretical article, based on practice-based evidence, takes forward the idea that different approaches (other than cognitive behavioral therapy) are required for people with MUS. The mind-set and characteristics of patients with MUS are reflected upon to shape the rationale and design of this novel approach. Improving services for this population in primary care is crucial to prevent the iterative spiraling downward of frequent general practitioner (GP) visits, hospital appointments, and accident and emergency attendance (A&E), all of which are common for these patients. The approach derives from embodied psychotherapy (authentic movement in dance movement psychotherapy) and adult models of learning for self-management. It has been developed from research and practice-based evidence. In this article the problem of MUS in primary care is introduced and the importance of the reluctance of patients to accept a psychological/mental health referral in the first instance is drawn out. A description of the theoretical underpinnings and philosophy of the proposed alternative to current interventions is then presented related to the design, delivery, facilitation, and educational content of the program. The unique intervention is also described to give the reader a flavor.” Additionally, a correction has been made to the Introduction, paragraph one: “Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are a thorny issue in primary care. Despite the differing nomenclature, the recent DSM-5 terms it as somatic symptom disorder (SSD) but is yet to achieve general usage. Many general practitioners (GPs) appear to reliably recognize MUS without the need for standardized assessments (Rasmussen et al., 2008). This population present with many, various and nebulous physical and psychological ailments (Rosendal et al., 2005) and constitute more than 25% of all new hospital and GP appointments (Fink et al., 1999; Reid et al., 2001). In England MUS has been estimated to cost £3 billion in 2008–2009 rising to £18 billion if loss of productivity, benefits and quality of life are accounted for Bermingham et al. (2010).” The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

The CACTA transposon Bot1 played a major role in Brassica genome divergence and gene proliferation

We isolated and characterized a Brassica C genome-specific CACTA element, which was designated Bot1 (Brassica oleracea transposon 1). After analysing phylogenetic relationships, copy numbers and sequence similarity of Bot1 and Bot1 analogues in B. oleracea (C genome) versus Brassica rapa (A genome), we concluded that Bot1 has encountered several rounds of amplification in the oleracea genome only, and has played a major role in the recent rapa and oleracea genome divergence. We performed in silico analyses of the genomic organization and internal structure of Bot1, and established which segment of Bot1 is C-genome specific. Our work reports a fully characterized Brassica repetitive sequence that can distinguish the Brassica A and C chromosomes in the allotetraploid Brassica napus, by fluorescent in situ hybridization. We demonstrated that Bot1 carries a host S locus-associated SLL3 gene copy. We speculate that Bot1 was involved in the proliferation of SLL3 around the Brassica genome. The present study reinforces the assumption that transposons are a major driver of genome and gene evolution in higher plants

Town of Newington Stormwater Management Project

The UNH Stormwater Center worked with the Newington Planning Board to improve the town’s site plan review regulations to better manage stormwater

Town of New Durham Stormwater Management & Erosion Control Project

Appledore Engineering worked with the New Durham Planning Board to develop a stormwater management and erosion control ordinance and to adopt complimentary improvements to the town’s site plan review and subdivision regulations

Thermogravimetric and distillation studies on mercury, antimony and arsenic sulfides

Thermogravimetric studies were made on naturally occurring sulfides of mercury, antimony and arsenic to determine activation energies and Arrhenius rates of reaction in vacuum and in atmospheres of air and nitrogen. Of the three sulfides only antimony showed an appreciable change in rate of reaction for the different test conditions. Distillation results on three flotation concentrates from Alaska mining operations showed that cinnabar (mercury sulfide) could be distilled in a closed system, with over 99 percent recovery of the mercury as metal when the sulfur was reacted with iron. Over 98 percent mercury recovery was obtained from a cinnabar-stibnite (antimony sulfide) concentrate, with less than 1 percent of the antimony distilled from the furnace charge. Cinnabarrealgar-orpiment (arsenic sulfides) could not be separated by distillation and large quantities of soot (condenser residue) formed with the metallic mercury in the condenser

Town and Countryside in early modern Hungary The Case of Sopron, c. 1500-1800

The town of Sopron (Ödenburg) is situated near the western border of Hungary at the junction of major routes of commerce, no further than 70 km from Vienna. As early as in 1291 the town had become a chartered town or free royal town, which meant the most fully-fledged municipial autonomy in this period. The town was subordinated only to the king and could represent itself in parliament from 1445. The surrounding seigniorial towns and villages often lodged an appeal with the Town Court due to its wide legal autonomy. The inhabitants of seigniorial towns and the villagers could have been under the necessity of going to the town, and the legal proceedings they experienced in Sopron may have meant a model pattern for them. The seigniorial town (oppidum) is a settlement under the landlord's authority, with limited legal privileges, concentrated mostly on agricultural production and on the exchange of products of its immediate hinterland. Sopron as a county town was gradually becoming significant during the early modern period. The county (megye) was not only the unit of administration in Hungary, but that of the autonomy of nobility, too. The importance of Sopron as a county town attracted many noblemen dwelling in Sopron county to the town. The county was one of the most densely populated in the 15-18th c., at the beginning of the 18th c., for example, the density was 32 person/km2 and it rose more than 40 p/km2 by the end of the century. The population of Sopron was approximately 3500-3700 in the middle of the 15th c., and due to the decline during the later decades some 3000 persons lived in the town in the early 16th c. According to the first national census the population of Sopron was 12600 in 1784-87. These data place Sopron at the high level of Hungarian urban hierarchy in this period. This paper will explore two significant aspects of the relation between the town and its countryside: the problems of mutual economic dependence and the role of Sopron as a centre of culture

Comprehensive Conservation Outreach Plan

With funding from the Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC) and the New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) the Town of Newmarket has undertaken the constructing of three signs and two educational/information kiosks for two recently acquired open space parcels and associated information for distribution on all conservation and passive recreation lands in the Town of Newmarket. The third kiosk involved repairing an existing structure rather than building a new one. The costs for the project include the creation and printing of maps and brochures for distribution, creation and installation of the kiosks (which will also house several signs from our funding partners) and the primary identification signs for three conservation parcels