A systems analysis of solar power potential in coming decades

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-32).Energy is a very important aspect of human life. In the past few centuries, energy consumption has increased dramatically to a point where humans are very much dependant of energy. Under the current nonrenewable energy extraction technique of burning fossil fuels there are many externalities that are negatively impacting the earth. Society is approaching a limit where these formerly cheap forms of energy will become increasingly more expensive due to the difficulty of their extraction. As such, it is apparent that new renewable forms of energy will develop out of necessity to fulfill the energy demand. The purpose of this paper is to examine the different aspects of the promising area of solar energy. The conclusions of the analysis show that a portfolio of alternative energies will be necessary in the future with solar energy, in particular photovoltaic cells, filling the bulk of the energy generation.by Chris Bateman.S.B

SA’s drink/drug abuse future could hang on a thread

A 35-year old South African entrepreneur firmly believes he can revolutionise the local alcohol and drug testing market through gold standard hair testing technology that provides up to three months (and often more) of accurate abuse history. What it requires, he told Izindaba, is for government policy and legislation to catch up with science and emulate other countries where his technology is widely used, enhancing judicial rulings across a host of fields. Not only could drunk or drug-taking drivers (the latter for whom no legally enforceable test exists locally) be accurately and quickly tested, but drug abusers in rehabilitation, parents or guardians with alcohol and drug dependencies and prospective adoptive parents could also be checked for historical abuse. Using a 381 mm (1,5 inch) length of hair, the analysis evaluates the number of drug metabolites imbedded inside the hair shaft, (via sweat) - with every 381mm or half inch of hair providing a 30-day history of drug or alcohol usage

Doctor shortages: Unpacking the ‘Cuban solution’

The programme which trains South Africans as doctors in Cuba will expand nearly tenfold for the next 5 years, pouring 1 000 undergraduates annually into our currently under-resourced local medical campuses from 2018 onwards. For the past 3 years, the annual output of Cuban-trained South Africans, ‘polished up’ in their final year at local medical schools, came to about 8% of the 1 300 graduates fully-trained locally.

Autism – mitigating a global epidemic

As autism burgeons worldwide, with the latest estimates of 1 in 50 children in the USA between 6 and 17 years old now affected,[1] parents are imploring physicians to go ‘all out’ for early diagnoses to enable highly effective and timely nutritional and behavioural intervention

No sacred cows as private sector embraces society-wide solutions

There were no sacred cows at October’s Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) conference – all the stark realities of our deeply economically divided society, its regulatory shortcomings and our inequitable healthcare delivery system were aired, and some solutions offered.

Ebola: SA has no outbreak ‘laurels’ to rest on

South Africas record in handling the initial HIV/AIDS pandemic (without antiretroviral drugs) and the rapid spread of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis are major red flags warning that it may not have the capacity to face the deadly drug-defiant West African Ebola virus

Mandatory cover? ‘Yes, but not now’ — Zokufa

Making medical scheme member contributions mandatory is less important than properly regulating prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs) which pose the biggest, most imminent threat to medical schemes’ viability, Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) CEO Dr Humphrey Zokufa claims. He was responding to findings which Barry Childs, CEO of Lighthouse Actuarial Consulting and CareGuage presented at the BHF conference in the Drakensberg in July showing that the medical aid industry loses R13.5 billion annually due to anti-selection pressures when cover is not mandatory. Childs compared open and restricted schemes for well over a decade and found open schemes reversed from being 12% cheaper in the 1990s to being 14% more expensive in ensuing years, rising to 30% more expensive between 2000 and 2012