Is Zero Net Energy 2020 Actually Attainable, Perceptions of Various Professionals Effected

California has created a mandate that will require all new residential buildings to become Zero Net Energy by 2020. Some are already doing it others don’t know what it means, and some don’t think it will be possible. Those that already do it are doing it without any extra cost. All that is required is, on average, a 4KW roof solar panel system. This is something that easy to install and only requires a little more planning during the design phase. There are many other things that a designer and builder can do to successfully reach ZNE including focus on the envelope or natural light, but the minimum would be the 4KW system. ZNE is actually a very easily attainable goal. A lot of the worry surrounding ZNE 2020 is actually due to the lack or information some builders have about it. Not knowing what ZNE means or how to actually implement it creates a lot of worry for small builders who have done it a certain way for so long. Realizing that their needs to be more information, California made a plan to begin educating professionals on what the expectation is. 2020 seems like a long time away, but it really isn’t for those in the construction industry. The change has to start now and the programs have to be introduced in order to educate those who don’t know. When 2020 comes around California will be ready for the mandate, and if they are not they will begin to adapt to it very quickly

Aptamer Functionalized Zinc Oxide Field Effect Transistors For Odor Detection

Odor detection and identification are complex processes, and tasks that currently only animals do well. There is a pressing need for an electronic nose, or eNose, with good sensitivity, selectivity, and speed that mimics that ability. Food quality control operations, environmental sensing, occupational safety, and the defense sectors all require systems that can rapidly and reliably detect trace levels of volatile organic compounds. The goal of this work is to create a biologically inspired device which can accurately detect and identify odors at concentrations consistent with the most sensitive biological systems. In order to mimic a natural olfactory system, we replaced the biological components of the olfactory system with synthetic components. If successful, this approach would provide a basis for a computational strategy that identifies odor based on combinatorial patterns of receptor activation, so that the number of recognizable odors exceeds the number of receptors. Our efforts produced an aptamer-decorated zinc oxide field effect transistor (Apta-FET) that shows great sensitivity to target compounds, but limited selectivity. We demonstrated that aptamers attached to a FET respond to targets in a concentration-dependent manner, and that this response can be measured electrically. The limited selectivity of our device highlights the need for many different kinds of aptamers within the same device, as well as the need for more advanced computational analysis of the output data. It is our hope that these hurdles will be overcome

Tools to Promote Open Pedagogy in the Classroom

A 30-page toolkit with 16 distinct teaching methods that promote open pedagogy explained. The beginning of the toolkit explains open pedagogy and its relationship to OER. There is a section at the end with additional resources and next steps if faculty want to implement some of these methods. There are multiple weblinks and examples embedded in the document so that faculty who are interested in a particular method can use those resources for more information and to see examples of how to implement open pedagogy

A Qualitative Study of the Process of Learning Nursing Skills Among Undergraduate Nursing Students

This qualitative, phenomenological study sought to answer the question: How do undergraduate nursing students learn to perform psychomotor skills within the full complement of nursing skills? Nine senior nursing students from a nursing school in the south central United States participated in this study. In-depth interviews using open-ended questions were conducted, recorded, transcribed by the researcher, and then analyzed using Colaizzi’s method to identify recurring themes. These themes were validated with the participants using a member checking process. An audit trail was kept to enhance dependability and confirmability. Six themes were identified: (a) the umbrella of emotion; (b) practice, practice, practice; (c) learning through technology; (d) “just pretend” does not produce confidence; (e) teaching matters; and (f) importance of peers. Therefore, the process of learning nursing skills can be described as follows: In a rough sea of emotions, necessity is the mother of invention. Emotions like fear and anxiety punctuated skills learning and participants found creative ways to learn nursing skills despite these barriers. This study updates prior qualitative studies about how nursing students learn skills and is the first qualitative study of how undergraduate nursing students learn skills in the United States. One unique finding in this study was some skills like tracheostomy care and skills involving sterile technique are harder to learn than others. Faculty members could inform students that these skills will require more practice time. Another unique finding in this study was how fidelity and the broad use of technology across many settings contributed to skills learning. Faculty members could recommend that students use their smartphones to record and evaluate videos of the student practicing skills at home and discuss policies about recording faculty members demonstrating skills in lab. These participants generally found textbooks and videos from YouTube® and Assessment Technologies, Incorporated® to be minimally useful when learning skills. These findings provided current information to nurse educators about the skills learning process and recommendations for effective skills teaching

Genetic improvement of Australian meat goats

The Australian meat goat industry is rapidly changing. This change is predominantly due to the value of goat meat increasing and production moving from rangeland harvesting to fenced commercial systems. The aim of the project was to determine how goat meat production can be increased through genetic improvement. A meta-analysis and sensitivity analysis in the literature review identified selection for kid survival could increase lean meat production by 12.3 kg per genetic standard deviation and became the main trait of interest for the project. The national performance recording scheme (KIDPLAN) is a database that was made available by Sheep Genetics. This producer recorded data contained pedigree and phenotypic information on 19,711 Boer goats. The KIDPLAN system provides estimated breeding values for Australian goat breeders and is the best opportunity for genetic improvement of meat goats. A new kid survival trait was created from the birth and rearing type information. The mean kid survival rate was 0.72, with a phenotypic variance of 0.14 and a heritability of 0.09. As the kid survival trait showed variation and was heritable, bivariate analyses with the growth and carcase traits was done to determine its suitability to be included in a selection index. Birth type had a significant effect on kid survival. Kid survival was positively genetically correlated or not different to zero with all of the production traits. The survival trait was separated into three traits based on birth type for singles, twins and multiples. A multivariate analysis showed they were different traits with genetic correlations of between 0.46 and 0.72. More work and accurate data is needed for them to be included in an index as separate traits and so kid survival should currently be treated as a single trait with birth type fitted as a fixed effect. The current KIDPLAN index is based on modified sheep parameter estimates and economic values. Surveys were conducted nationally and were used to calculate economic values for the goat production traits. The results from the parameter estimates and surveys showed that goat genetic parameters are different to sheep and the current index is not representative of the industry. Three breeding objectives were created and simulated with six different recording practices. The key finding and recommendation for industry was to adopt a new index based on goat parameter estimates and economic values, also to include reproductive traits such as kid survival as it would lead to a faster rate of gain in reproductive rate than just focusing on number of kids weaned. It was estimates that this would lead to a $6.75 improvement per doe joined per year compared to the current index.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, 201

Microscale elastic properties of interphases in polymer matrix composites: correlating spatial mapping with cure history

Polymer matrix composites with textile reinforcement are used in a wide range of aerospace and industrial applications. Continuum mechanical predictions of the composite behaviors have been inaccurate and resorted to empirical corrections, because of the lack of polymer materials property information. The length scales involved make experimental measurement of the elastic properties of the matrix within fiber tows and proximity to individual fibers difficult. However, micro-Brillouin and Raman light scattering provide sufficiently high spatial resolution to probe the mechanical properties and chemical composition of the matrix, without interfering with the thermo-mechanical equilibrium of the material. The elastic properties of epoxy resin have been measured between and within the fiber tows of a composite with this technique, and compared to a bulk epoxy resin. Using this approach, the elastic properties have also been monitored in situ, during epoxy cure under different thermal and chemical conditions. To interpret and enhance these results, experiments are complemented with molecular dynamics simulations of the interface extrapolating findings to nanometer length scales. We observe that matrix materials in close proximity to fibers have a diminished elastic modulus compared with both bulk epoxy and material between tows. To explain the underlying reason for this finding we identify the extent to which residual stresses, chemical inhomogeneities, or purely structural rearrangements near the interface contribute to this effect. Finally, we correlate the spatial distribution of mechanical properties with the cure history

Cure kinetics and interfacial phenomena in polymer matrix composites

Polymer matrix composites with textile reinforcement are used in a wide range of aerospace and industrial applications. Continuum mechanical predictions of the composite behaviors have been inaccurate, possibly because of the lack of information with regard to polymer materials properties, especially near the interfaces with the reinforcing fibers. Concurrent micro-Brillouin and Raman light scattering provides sufficiently high spatial resolution to probe the mechanical properties and chemical composition of the interphase regions of the matrix, without interfering with the thermo-mechanical equilibrium of the material. Using this technique, we mapped the elastic properties of epoxy resin in between and within the fiber tows of a composite, revealing that the modulus exhibits a marked spatial inhomogeneity in proximity of fibers, with a decrease of up to 5% compared to that of bulk epoxy resin in the regions of highest fiber density (see Fig. 1).1 We estimate that it would take a deformation of four times the failure strain to cause such a change in modulus based on residual stresses. Hence, the origin must lie elsewhere. Using the same methodology, we then monitored the elastic properties in situ, during epoxy cure under different thermal and chemical conditions. We find that depending on the reaction rate, the elastic modulus evolves differently as a function of the degree of cure: the faster the rate, the more the modulus lags behind of what would be expected from the amount of cross-links that have formed according to the degree of cure. This is because the overall modulus is based on the stiffness resulting from bonded and non-boned network connections, the latter arising the optimization of network packing that ensues after a slow structural relaxation.2 Provided enough time, the same final modulus is reached, unless network formation is impeded by the under-supply of hardener. To interpret and enhance these results, experiments are complemented with molecular dynamics simulations of the interface. Accordingly, the one-sided confinement of polymer adjacent to a fiber surface results in clearly detectable structural features, e.g., layering and densification, as well as changes in the elastic properties within a spatial extent that reaches significantly beyond the region of distinguishable structural features. In conclusion, we attribute the inhomogeneity in mechanical properties to a combination of hardener depletion and an impediment of structural relaxation due to unilateral confinement that lowers the extent and effectiveness of non-bonded interaction

A rapid algorithm for realistic human reaching and its use in a virtual reality system

The Graphics Analysis Facility (GRAF) at JSC has developed a rapid algorithm for computing realistic human reaching. The algorithm was applied to GRAF's anthropometrically correct human model and used in a 3D computer graphics system and a virtual reality system. The nature of the algorithm and its uses are discussed