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Biofuels for Aviation
Get PDFParaffinic Kerosene fuels are the backbone of commercial air travel. Kerosene fuels are primarily derived from petroleum processing and contribute significantly to carbon emissions globally. A variety of processes have been proposed to create renewable or semi-renewable sources of kerosene fuel suitable for aviation. One such process outlined in a 2019 white paper published by Gevo proposes the use of bio-based alcohol feed stocks to produce isobutanol which may be converted to kerosene mixtures through well-established dehydration and oligomerizations processes. The proposed Alcohol to Jet Fuel Pathway (ATJ-SPK) is a potentially net carbon neutral process which can greatly reduce the emissions generated by commercial air travel. The pathway would also allow airlines to integrate green Synthetic Paraffinic Fuel technology without expensive overhaul of existing fleets to accommodate new fuel sources, or research currently infeasible electric air travel (Gevo, 2019).
A plant was designed around the use of a Nickel-FM catalyst to convert feedstocks of ethanol and methanol to isobutanol via the Guerbet chemistry pathway (Olson et al., 2004). Due to the presence of side reactions and excess methanol feed, distillation and liquid-liquid separation were proposed as methods of delivering an isobutanol-water mixture to the downstream dehydration and oligomerization steps. The economics of the downstream processes are estimated and included in the profitability analysis along with a detailed estimation of the isobutanol production step. Selling the fuel product at market price was not found to be profitable; however, if a green premium of 4.55x is applied to the product fuel price the plant is 2 both technically and economically feasible. With the green premium levied on the price of the product fuel the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is 15%, with a Net Present Value (NPV) of $51.7 MM, and a third year Return on Investment (ROI) of 13.58%. Significant market research is needed to assess the viability of the green premium that must be levied on the fuel price to yield a reasonable return. It may be the case that it is currently inadvisable to invest in the proposed plant but may become advisable in the coming years as consumer and regulatory awareness begins to grow over the environmental impacts of air travel
Production of a SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Vaccine Using the Baculovirus Expression Vector System
Get PDFVarious COVID-19 vaccines are currently in development, as the COVID-19 pandemic has created an unmet need for protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. While there are many different types of vaccines, we focused on developing one that would be safe, affordable, and quickly available for emergency use. A vaccine synthesized using recombinant proteins utilizes a reliable and well-studied technological platform, avoids the safety risks inherent to viral vectors, and provides a cost-effective, scalable method of production of antigen used to induce an immune response. Other vaccines on the market notably include Pfizer’s and Moderna’s mRNA based vaccines. Although these are widely used, there is still a large demand for an inexpensive yet safe and effective vaccine. Herein, we propose the production of 500 million doses of a recombinant spike protein-based COVID-19 vaccine in a quick time frame and cost-effective manner, using the baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS). Our upstream process involves a three-stage cellular scale-up from shake flasks to WAVE bioreactors to perfusion to production bioreactors, as well as an additional two-stage viral amplification from flasks to WAVE bioreactors. Our downstream process involves a six-stage protein recovery with depth filtration, his-tag chromatography, viral inactivation, ion-exchange chromatography, viral filtration, and diafiltration. We will be partnering with a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) for this project, as we do not have the time to quickly build a plant to get these vaccines out for emergency use. This arrangement makes this process highly profitable. Selling each dose for 2 billion and an extremely high IRR due to the lack of permanent and fixed costs other than our rental fee. The IRR for the CMO is estimated to be at least 16% with the NPV of the plant at $855,000 and an ROI of 18%
Public and Political Opinion on Medicaid
Get PDFMedicaid has long been a political litmus test and a target for substantial programmatic changes. But what does the public feel about Medicaid, especially during a pandemic? In this study, the authors analyze more than one million Medicaid-related tweets from December 1, 2018 to September 30, 2020. They found a high volume of political posts on Twitter around Medicaid topics, peaking in January 2020 in the context of news about Medicaid expansion and the prior administration’s Medicaid block grant proposal. As the pandemic hit, the number of Twitter posts about Medicaid and the pandemic increased, and the volume of political tweets on other Medicaid topics dropped. The posts themselves also appeared to be less polarized. These patterns suggest that when the public sees Medicaid operate as a safety net, the program is far less polarizing than partisan politics might indicate. Highlighting Medicaid’s role during the pandemic could help strengthen public support for the program in non-crisis times and better position it to respond to future economic downturns
Facing Rural Water Insecurities: Adapting Gendered Indigenous Approaches in Ondo State, Nigeria
Get PDFThe participation of women in water management is critical for households and for safeguarding the health and hygiene of rural women and men, especially in Africa and around the world. This paper argues that the knowledge around gender- based water management among rural dwellers is still underrepresented and provides the rationale for this study. Qualitative methods were used to examine the approaches in rural water management and their impact on women and their livelihoods through interviews, narratives, and the respondents’ everyday experiences. Significant findings from this study revealed that the indigenous participation of women in water management at individual households improved the quality of water among the rural dwellers. Further findings also showed that the impact of gender insensitivity has reemphasized the limited role of women in rural water management (RWM) at the community level. It was concluded that various indigenous practices by women in an effort to make water potable in these villages have contributed to meeting their practical gender needs (PGNs) based on their cultural roles. However, channeling water from surrounding rivers by pipe into every street and regular gender awareness assembly between men and women across the rural communities could improve the livelihood of women by contributing to their strategic gender needs (SGNs)
Addressing Women’s Sanitation-related Safety Concerns in Slums of Maharashtra, India
Get PDFThrough this paper we explore women’s vulnerability during sanitation activities and the impact that household toilets have on women’s safety-related concerns. This study covers 4 cities in the state of Maharashtra– Pune, Pimpri- Chinchwad, Thane, and Kolhapur - where Shelter Associates has provided many slum households with toilets under its One Home One Toilet (OHOT) programme. A good part of the programme’s intention is to offer women an alternative to using their existing, inadequate public sanitation facilities, a problem that was highlighted during discussions with slum women themselves. Shelter Associates is a Maharashtra-based NGO established in 1993 that provides low cost sanitation and housing to slum residents
North Africa and the Making of American Psychological Warfare and Propaganda, 1942-1945
Get PDFIn 1942, the United States founded the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Tasked with preparing North Africa for the first major Allied invasion of World War II, the OSS conducted extensive preparations that drew on resistance groups for support, utilized radio propaganda to destroy morale, spread rumors to discredit the enemy, and produced leaflets and pamphlets that influenced local populations. Operation Torch, as it would be known, was instrumental in laying the foundation for U.S. intelligence operations in the World War II period and beyond. After Operation Torch, the OSS conducted numerous psychological operations in Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. While the OSS faced challenges in conducting propaganda, stemming from jurisdictional battles with other U.S. wartime intelligence agencies, it was able to significantly improve its propaganda methods and tactics. In fact, by 1944, OSS radio programs had become so sophisticated that they fooled American military radio operators into believing they were enemy broadcasts. Other OSS psychological operations also showed great success, showcased by the thousands of soldiers who would surrender to Allied forces with OSS-made pamphlets in hand. Eventually, with the end of the War, President Truman abolished the OSS, instead replacing it with transitional intelligence agencies which culminated in the establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency. This study utilizes a variety of recently declassified OSS documents to emphasize the importance of North Africa in the birth of modern American psychological warfare, which seems to stem from present day Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia
The Health Impacts of Eviction: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health
Get PDFEviction represents an urgent social and economic issue in the United States, with nearly two million evictions occurring annually in the U.S. Still, the population health impacts of evictions, as well as the pathways linking eviction to health, are not well documented or understood, particularly among young adults. Using nationally-representative, longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (1994-2008) (n=9,029), the present study uses a combination of analytic methods—including prospective lagged dependent variable regression models, inverse probabilities of treatment weighting, longitudinal first difference models, causal mediation techniques—to comprehensively assess whether and how evictions relate to depressive risk and self-rated health across early adulthood, paying particular attention to the stress-related pathways linking eviction and health. Results provide robust evidence of positive longitudinal associations between eviction and depressive risk, in particular. In the prospective regression models, young adults who experienced recent eviction had more depressive symptoms and worse self-rated health than those who were not evicted, net a host of background characteristics. Using treatment weighting techniques, results showed that young adults who experienced eviction had more depressive symptoms than those who were not evicted (5.921 vs. 4.998 depressive symptoms, p=0.003). Perceived social stress mediated nearly 18 percent of the associations between eviction and the depressive symptoms (p\u3c0.001). In the first difference models, young people who experienced eviction between survey waves experienced greater increases in depressive symptoms over time compared to those who were not evicted, net of changes in other indicators of socioeconomic status and residential instability. Taken together, our results suggest that the recent surges in evictions in the U.S. serve as a potent threat to population health during the emerging adult period, with especially devastating consequences for low-income individuals and communities of color
Child Marriage: Characterization as a Noxious Market and Policy-Based Responses to Economic Motivations
Get PDFChild marriage is a human rights violation according to various international agreements and human rights conventions. In many countries the practice is outlawed, yet it persists with great incidence in both developed and developing societies. Governments must act to eliminate the practice which (1) results in physical and psychological individual harms for child brides; (2) perpetuates societal harms in the form of entrenched gender inequality and limited economic potential for women and for countries as a whole; (3) thrives on the exploitation of economic and agency vulnerabilities of a social class, namely young girls and women; and (4) threatens the agency and autonomy of market “participants,” thereby characterizing the market in child marriage as a “noxious market,” according to Debra Satz’s framework, in the strongest sense. To best respond to the harms and negative effects of the market, governments need to understand the reasons why the practice persists, even though it is illegal. Among the most cited motivators of child marriage are economic circumstance (i.e., poverty) and dated or unfounded beliefs relating to the economic potential of young girls and women. Governments can address these motivators, and thereby (begin to) eradicate the practice of child marriage, through improvements to and expansion of social welfare programs and through targeted educational initiatives which stress the economic opportunity available to and earnings potential of young girls
The Role of Public Trust in People\u27s Subjective Well-Being
Get PDFKenneth Arrow, perhaps the most influential economist after John Maynard Keynes in the 20th century, viewed trust as a lubricant that fosters cooperative behaviour and thus facilitates mutually advantageous economic exchanges in the presence of incomplete contracts and imperfect information. Recent research has confirmed the beneficial effects of trust in government on economic performance. The obverse, that an erosion of trust in public institutions (state, judiciary and police) has deleterious effects on economic performance, is equally true. Various recent accounts do not just corroborate an erosion of trust in governance, but also point to the imperative of strengthening it to break out of the deep recession that India’s economy is in. The fiscal stimulus has been too little, too late
What is Robotics: Why Do We Need It and How Can We Get It?
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