Transforming “The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)” Into a Lighthouse-Project of Sustainability

AbstractUNAM is the oldest and one of the most prestigious universities in the Americas. The main campus of the university is home of about 300 000 students and covers an area of about 4 square-kilometres in the south of Mexico City. UNAM is also one of the biggest electricity consumers in Mexico-City. More than 70 Million kWh electricity are consumed yearly, producing about 49 000 tons of CO2 emission. Within the paper we will show that this could be changed with a high financial and educational profit.As UNAM has no heating and only a few cooling systems, lighting is by far the biggest use of electricity. The existing lighting system is extremely inefficient while providing unsatisfactory illumination in some places. The UNEP Centre on Sustainable Production and Consumption (CSCP) together with Büro Ö-quadrat devised a project which demonstrates how UNAM can benefit from an upgrade to a highly efficient lighting system. What makes the project unique is that the results are not based on theoretical calculations but were corroborated by implementation results of a highly efficient lighting system in four different areas (a foyer, classrooms, a library and a workshop) and the measurement of the electricity savings. Within these four areas the average electricity saving was 84% and the combined pay-back time was 2.7 years. Based on the empirical results and an analysis of 10 UNAM-buildings a master plan was developed for the entire university campus. Here the objective was to establish the broad strategic principles for a successful lighting system upgrade, as well as the necessary budget and savings that could be achieved. The results demonstrate that an initial investment of US$14 million would result in electricity costs savings of US$ 68 million over the 20 year lifetime of the upgraded lighting system. About thirty per cent of the electricity consumed in UNAM today could be saved with a high profit on investment.In a second step we show that most of the remaining electricity consumption could be produced by solar energy. The Feed-in Tariff system in Germany has led to a high capacity of PV-production and lowered the cost for PV-systems: In May 2013 a 40kW PV system, including all parts for the mounting, can be bought in Europe for a price of about 800 Euro/kW. Assuming that on 2% of the UNAM-area PV-systems would be installed, these systems could produce about 23 GWh with lower costs compared to the electricity price UNAM has to pay.Combining the investment for efficient lighting and PV-systems, about 60% (or about 29 000 tons) of the CO2-emissions of UNAM could be saved with a high rate of return.Best of all: What would be a more convincing way to educate 60 000 students every year about sustainability than a practical example of highly efficient lighting system and powered by solar energy? UNAM could be a light house for many other universities and schools

Bacterial outer membrane vesicles and vaccine applications

Vaccines based on outer membrane vesicles (OMV) were developed more than 20 years ago against Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B. These nano-sized structures exhibit remarkable potential for immunomodulation of immune responses and delivery of “self” meningococcal antigens or unrelated antigens incorporated into the vesicle structure. This paper reviews different applications in OMV Research and Development (R&D) and provides examples of OMV developed and evaluated at the Finlay Institute in Cuba. A Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) process was developed at the Finlay Institute to produce OMV from N. meningitidis serogroup B (dOMVB) using detergent extraction. Subsequently, OMV from N. meningitidis, serogroup A (dOMVA), serogroup W (dOMVW) and serogroup X (dOMVX) were obtained using this process. More recently, the extraction process has also been applied effectively for obtaining OMV on a research scale from Vibrio cholerae (dOMVC), Bordetella pertussis (dOMVBP), Mycobacterium smegmatis (dOMVSM) and BCG (dOMVBCG). The immunogenicity of the OMV have been evaluated for specific antibody induction, and together with functional bactericidal and challenge assays in mice have shown their protective potential. dOMVB has been evaluated with non-self neisserial antigens, including with a herpes virus type 2 glycoprotein, ovalbumin and allergens. In conclusion, OMV are proving to be more versatile than first conceived and remain an important technology for development of vaccine candidates. - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fimmu.2014.00121/abstract#sthash.MwqUyZQ1.dpu