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

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

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

How Has Hospital Consolidation Affected the Price and Quality of Hospital Care?

Provides an overview of the wave of hospital consolidation in the 1990s and reviews the literature on its effects on the prices, costs, and quality of inpatient care. Analyzes the studies' findings and discusses implications for policy makers

LibQUAL+®: The SCONUL Experience

LibQUAL+® is a library customer satisfaction survey developed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in association with Texas A&M University (Association of Research Libraries, 2011). The survey consists of 22 questions on library services across three dimensions: Affect of Service, containing questions relating to the library staff; Information Control, covering the library resources and access to them; and Library as Place, assessing the physical environment. One of the key strengths of LibQUAL+® is its use of gap theory to evaluate customer expectations as well as perceptions. For each of the 22 questions respondents are asked their minimum and desired expectations along with their current perceived level of service on a nine-point scoring scale. The standardised survey enables participating institutions to benchmark their scores against one another, and against an aggregated score for their consortium

LibQUAL+ in the UK: a brief report on the SCONUL Pilot.

Reports on the pilot year of LibQUAL+ in the UK adopted for trial by SCONUL Libraries. Discusses the implementation of LibQUAL+ and presents feedback from the UK participants. Concludes that the trial was a success and further iterations of the survey should be encouraged and supported

The microglial "activation" continuum: from innate to adaptive responses

Microglia are innate immune cells of myeloid origin that take up residence in the central nervous system (CNS) during embryogenesis. While classically regarded as macrophage-like cells, it is becoming increasingly clear that reactive microglia play more diverse roles in the CNS. Microglial "activation" is often used to refer to a single phenotype; however, in this review we consider that a continuum of microglial activation exists, with phagocytic response (innate activation) at one end and antigen presenting cell function (adaptive activation) at the other. Where activated microglia fall in this spectrum seems to be highly dependent on the type of stimulation provided. We begin by addressing the classical roles of peripheral innate immune cells including macrophages and dendritic cells, which seem to define the edges of this continuum. We then discuss various types of microglial stimulation, including Toll-like receptor engagement by pathogen-associated molecular patterns, microglial challenge with myelin epitopes or Alzheimer's β-amyloid in the presence or absence of CD40L co-stimulation, and Alzheimer disease "immunotherapy". Based on the wide spectrum of stimulus-specific microglial responses, we interpret these cells as immune cells that demonstrate remarkable plasticity following activation. This interpretation has relevance for neurodegenerative/neuroinflammatory diseases where reactive microglia play an etiological role; in particular viral/bacterial encephalitis, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer disease

Town of Milton Shoreland Protection Project

Mettee Planning Consultants (MPC) worked with the Milton Conservation Commission to evaluate and streamline the town’s water resource protection regulations. One of the outcomes was revision and passage of a Shoreland Protection Overlay District as part of the town’s zoning ordinance