A 24-hour radiation budget at a high-grass marsh in early winter

As with others of the numerous physical factors forming the nonliving environment of terrestrial ecosystems, the upward and downward exchanges of the fluxes of solar (short-wave) and terrestrial (long-wave) radiation often appear in the literature as yearly, seasonal, or monthly averages. Because these tend to present a misleading or incomplete picture of environmental conditions, a 24-hour series of measurements is presented here. A series of radiation measurements was taken to determine the radiation budget at a high-grass marsh in early winter

The Matson and Mayville (M&M) seizure scale: an assessment of psychological and environmental variables contributing to seizure activity in persons with mental retardation

Seizure activity can be debilitating across a number of physical, social, occupational, and personal domains. Given the deficits in all of these areas frequently present in persons with mental retardation, the control and elimination of seizures is a primary goal for individuals with both mental retardation and epilepsy. Antiepileptic medication can reduce seizure activity. However, this intervention often carries with it a range of untoward side effects that may adversely affect clients over what is typically a long-term treatment regimen. Over the last 20 years, literature has emerged emphasizing the importance of environmental variables in the initiation and maintenance of seizure activity. The assessment of such factors and subsequent development of behavioral interventions to reduce seizure activity in persons with mental retardation would be a significant addition to treatment efforts typically dependent upon chemical intervention alone. The Matson and Mayville (M&M) seizure scale is the first assessment tool designed to assess such factors specific to persons with mental retardation. This study examined the psychometric properties of this scale through the assessment of internal consistency, construct validity, and inter-rater, cross-rater, and test-retest reliability statistics. Results revealed good inter-rater reliability, but lower overall values for the remaining statistical evaluations. Some evidence of reliability and validity was apparent in individual items; further research is needed to further evaluate the potential of this approach

The relationship between depression and feeding disorder symptoms among persons with severe and profound mental retardation

In recent years, feeding disorders have been described in detail, and various assessment and treatment methods for these disorders have been reported. Within the literature, an emphasis has been placed on functional variables responsible for the onset and maintenance of feeding disorders, yet little has been reported on the relationship between feeding disorders and other forms of psychopathology. Therefore, the relationship between depression and feeding disorders was assessed. Three groups of individuals were compared across subscales and individual items on the Screening Tool for Feeding Problems (STEP) to assess for differences in problematic feeding behavior. Individuals who met diagnostic criteria for a mood disorder characterized by clinically significant symptoms of depression (n = 18), met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (n = 18), and those without a DSM-IV Axis I diagnosis (n = 18) were included in the study. Significant differences were found across diagnostic groups for STEP subscales and/or items representative of aspiration risk, food refusal, and nutrition related behavior problems. Feeding disorders varied across diagnostic categorization, and underscore the need for further research that assesses the relationship between feeding disorders and other forms of psychopathology

Water Conservation Potential of Self-Funded Foam-Based Flexible Surface-Mounted Floatovoltaics

A potential solution to the coupled water–energy–food challenges in land use is the concept of floating photovoltaics or floatovoltaics (FPV). In this study, a new approach to FPV is investigated using a flexible crystalline silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) module backed with foam, which is less expensive than conventional pontoon-based FPV. This novel form of FPV is tested experimentally for operating temperature and performance and is analyzed for water-savings using an evaporation calculation adapted from the Penman–Monteith model. The results show that the foam-backed FPV had a lower operating temperature than conventional pontoon-based FPV, and thus a 3.5% higher energy output per unit power. Therefore, foam-based FPV provides a potentially profitable means of reducing water evaporation in the world’s at-risk bodies of fresh water. The case study of Lake Mead found that if 10% of the lake was covered with foam-backed FPV, there would be enough water conserved and electricity generated to service Las Vegas and Reno combined. At 50% coverage, the foam-backed FPV would provide over 127 TWh of clean solar electricity and 633.22 million m3 of water savings, which would provide enough electricity to retire 11% of the polluting coal-fired plants in the U.S. and provide water for over five million Americans, annually

The Greenest Solar Power? Life Cycle Assessment Of Foam-Based Flexible Floatovoltaics

This study presents a life cycle analysis (LCA) of a 10 MW foam-based floatovoltaics (FPV) plant installed on Lake Mead, Nevada, U.S. A material inventory of the flexible crystalline silicon (c-Si)-based module involved massing and determination of material composition of the module\u27s encapsulation layers with ATR/FTR spectroscopy and electron microscopy. The LCA was performed using SimaPro and the results were interpreted in terms of cumulative energy demands, energy payback time, global warming potential, GHG emissions, and water footprint including negative values for reduced evaporation. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the lifetime of the modules and the foam-based racking. The results show that the 30 year lifetime foam-based FPV system has one of the lowest energy payback times (1.3 years) and the lowest GHG emissions to energy ratio (11 kg CO2 eq per MW h) in c-Si solar PV technologies reported to date. In addition, the foam-based FPV system also had 5 times less water footprint (21.5 m3 per MW h) as compared to a conventional pontoon-based FPV (110 m3 per MW h). The lifetime of the foam-based racking does not affect the result, while the lifetime of the modules has a significant effect on the lifecycle impacts of the foam-based FPV plant. Foam-based FPV has a net positive impact on the environment for CO2 emissions and energy consumption if its lifetime is above 7.4 years and the technology has the potential to become the greenest c-Si-based solar PV technology if the lifetime of the modules can be guaranteed for at least 26.6 years. Future work is needed to determine the lifetimes of these systems and expand them

The theoretical components of corporatism, and selected case studies.

The notion of corporatism first emerged during the middle ages, but it was not until the twentieth century that corporatism became a significant factor in the political structure of many countries. Initially, corporations performed representative functions for its members, and were used as vehicles towards socialization; however, these structures did not resemble tripartite arrangements (collaboration between the state, business, and labour interests) that are prominent in contemporary corporatist settings. Corporatism in the twentieth century began to take on new forms. The Italian Fascist State was the first significant example of authoritative corporatism, and this model was shortly thereafter adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany, as well as Spain and Portugal. At the culmination of the Second World War, corporatism was viewed as a term of opprobrium, and remained a non-factor in most polities until its reemergence during the 1970s. By this time, corporatism overcame its pejorative connotations and was implemented in many Western industrialized countries as a reaction to the welfare state, Keynesian economics and as an alternative to pluralism. Therefore, a distinction can be made between state corporatism, which is authoritarian in nature, and societal corporatism which is found in most liberal democracies.Dept. of History, Philosophy, and Political Science. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1994 .M39. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 34-02, page: 0591. Adviser: Ralph C. Nelson. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1994

On the fatigue improvement of railways superstructure components due to cold expansion – Part II: Finite element prediction

This paper is the second of a two-part series dealing with the study of the residual stress field induced by cold expansion (CE) in rail-end-bolt holes. In the aeronautical field, cold expansion is a consolidated practice adopted to induce beneficial residual compressive stresses around holes of aluminium parts, with the aim to improve the fatigue strength. However, in the literature few experimental or numerical studies are proposed on the application of this technique to structural steels. In Part I, an in-depth experimental investigation was carried out on railway steel, in particular on rail-end-bolt holes, with the aim to better understand the full non-linear response of the material during the whole process. In this paper, finite element (FE) analyses simulating CE process are presented, and the experimental results of Part I have been used to validate the FE model. The strain-time history acquired during the entire cold expansion process allowed the comparison with FE-predicted strains, both in terms of residual and maximum strains. This approach is not present in literature, neither for aluminium nor for steel. The results, in terms of trend and magnitude, show that strains in both the experiments and the FE simulations are generally consistent, confirming the reliability of the FE model. In addition, a sensitivity study is presented for different levels of cold expansion. The results can be exploited to develop an a priori prediction of the residual stresses near the hole surface, aiming to an improvement of fatigue strength