61 research outputs found
Store Your Power: Exploring various neighborhood batteries and the influence of values on technology support
No full textAs our electricity system becomes more complex, decentralized, and unstable, research on solutions to relieve the grid are needed. Local energy storage could contribute significantly to the solution. This study focused on one solution in particular: the neighborhood battery. Neighborhood batteries are emerging as a technical and social innovation for smart neighborhoods, which enable to share and store energy collectively. Since each neighborhood has its own characteristics, different technical needs, and economic conditions, the fitability of a battery per neighborhood will also differ. If stakeholder values are considered during a project, the technology can have more support from the citizens. Therefore, technology support can be considered as an important aspect of the success of new projects to succeed. In this thesis, it is considered neighborhood batteries have embedded values and can satisfy the demands of different actors. The theory of Responsible innovation tries to align technological innovations with the technical, socio-economic, and institutional aspects of the innovation. The objective of this study is to better understand the alignment of technical functionalities of the batteries and citizens' values. Accordingly, neighborhood batteries are not only assessed on a technological and economic performance indicator, but ethical aspects provide a wider understanding of the development of neighborhood batteries. Agent-Based Modeling is used to model the batteries in the neighborhood and study the influence of values and interactions on the technology support. In addition, this research uses Schwartz values to model values.The results show the multi-functional usability of neighborhood batteries. Additionally, the results demonstrate how a neighborhood battery can be designed to match the values of the neighborhood and how value similarity and communities can influence the support for the battery. The diverse functionalities of the neighborhood battery show advantageous technical and economic capabilities. The current rules and regulations enable battery projects, but still business models that achieve large-scale implementations are missing. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the amount of neighborhood battery projects in The Netherlands that focus on equal benefits for all energy users. Within these projects, value-based decisions can help the process of implementing the neighborhood battery. It is important to consider the social dimensions of neighborhood batteries and responsible innovations can help to do so. If more attention is given to local developments and the role of all energy users, the neighborhood battery will provide a platform to store and share your power.Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM
The Courier, Volume 34, Issue 14, February 16, 2001
No full textStories:
Murphy Defended–Staff, Students Confront Board
3% Raises Mean Strike In 2003, Faculty Warn
Faculty Ask For 11-Week Calendar
E-Mail Access Requested By Board
Fisher Study Helped Spur Candidate Into Campaign
Future Teacher Shortage Education Majors Told
‘The Man The Myth, The Music’ Behind Nat King Cole
People:
Serena Niensted
Joe Mullin
Tom Niketopoulos
Lee F. Crumbaugh
Euclid Gray
Beverly Fawell
James McGrew
Spellbinder
Gene Hicks
Monroe Kent III
Tomas W. Krieglstein
Ophur
Damond Brow
METHOD FOR PRODUCING FLUORINATED DAMOND-LIKE CARBON FILMS
No full textFluorinated, diamond-like carbon (F-DLC) films are produced by a pulsed, glow-discharge plasma immersion ion processing procedure. The pulsed, glow-discharge plasma was generated at a pressure of 1 Pa from an acetylene (CH) and hexafluoroethane (CF) gas mixture, and the fluorinated, diamond-like carbon films were deposited on silicon \u3c100\u3eSubstrates. The film hardness and wear resistance were found to be strongly dependent on the fluorine content incorporated into the coatings. The hardness of the F-DLC films was found to decrease considerably when the fluorine content in the coatings reached about 20%. The contact angle of water on the F-DLC coatings was found to increase with increasing film fluorine content and to Saturate at a level characteristic of polytetrafluoroethylene
V3 serotyping of HIV-1 infection : correlation with genotyping and limitations
No full textHIV-1 V3 serotyping is a classification of immunodeficiency viruses based on antibody binding to V3 peptides that allows obtaining information on circulating subtypes that could be important for population-based epidemiologic studies. Recently, several laboratories have developed V3 enzyme-immunoassays (EIAs) using V3 peptides of subtypes A to E. In the present study, the utility of including additional peptides of subtypes F to H to the EIA was evaluated on a panel of 203 well-characterized serum samples from patents with diverse geographic origins (22 countires) and known HIV-1 genotype (79 A, 61 B, 21 C, 7 D, 7 E, 21 F, 6 G, 1 H). The results indicate a high predictive value (ppv) for serotypes B (greater than or equal to 0.86), D (1) and E (0.88), and confirm the difficulty of predicting genotype A or C based on serotype A or C. Results also indicate that inclusion of the F peptide in the V3 EIAs may be useful (ppv = 0.61), but introduction of peptides G and H failed to demonstrate significant sensitivity or specificity for these subtypes. Correlation between serotyping and amino-acid sequences of the V3 region from 103 samples allowed the identification of key amino-acids that appear essential for subtype-specific seroreactivity. (Résumé d'auteur
Impact of HIV-1 subtype and antiretroviral therapy on protease and reverse transcriptase genotype: Results of a global collaboration
No full textBackground The genetic differences among HIV-1 subtypes may be critical to clinical management and drug resistance surveillance as antiretroviral treatment is expanded to regions of the world where diverse non-subtype-B viruses predominate.Methods and Findings To assess the impact of HIV-1 subtype and antiretroviral treatment on the distribution of mutations in protease and reverse transcriptase, a binomial response model using subtype and treatment as explanatory variables was used to analyze a large compiled dataset of non-subtype-B HIV-1 sequences. Non-subtype-B sequences from 3,686 persons with well characterized antiretroviral treatment histories were analyzed in comparison to subtype B sequences from 4,769 persons. The non-subtype-B sequences included 461 with subtype A, 1,185 with C, 331 with D, 245 with F, 293 with G, 513 with CRF01_AE, and 618 with CRF02_AG. Each of the 55 known subtype B drug-resistance mutations occurred in at least one non-B isolate, and 44 (80%) of these mutations were significantly associated with antiretroviral treatment in at least one non-B subtype. Conversely, of 67 mutations found to be associated with antiretroviral therapy in at least one non-B subtype, 61 were also associated with antiretroviral therapy in subtype B isolates.Conclusion Global surveillance and genotypic assessment of drug resistance should focus primarily on the known subtype B drug-resistance mutations
HIV type 1 diversity and the reliability of the heteroduplex mobility assay
No full textWe investigated HIV-1 diversity by means of heteroduplex mobility assay (HMA) genotyping. We studied 199 samples from patients originating from 26 countries and living in France. The HMA successfully genotyped 182 (91 %) of these samples, as follows : 77 (42 %) subtype A, 57 (31 %) subtype B, 5 (3 %) subtype C, 5 (3 %) subtype D, 8 (4 %) subtype E, 22 (12 %) subtype F, 5 (3 %) subtype G, and 3 (2 %) subtype H. We were not able to genotype 12 samples by means of the HMA. These latter strains were sequenced, and phylogenetic analyses revealed that they were highly divergent subtype A-, D-, or G-related strains. Eight (of 12) subtype D strains were indeterminate by HMA, owing to the broad intrasubtype diversity, suggesting that new reference subtype D plasmids are required, as previously proposed. Thirty-seven strains belonging to the different subtypes were sequenced, and the results showed perfect concordance with the HMA results. Interlaboratory quality controls confirmed the reliability of the HMA for HIV-1 subtyping, despite the extensive viral variability. However, plasmid selection must be continuously revised to cover viral diversification. (Résumé d'auteur
HIV type 1 diversity and the reliability of the heteroduplex mobility assay
No full textWe investigated HIV-1 diversity by means of heteroduplex mobility assay (HMA) genotyping. We studied 199 samples from patients originating from 26 countries and living in France. The HMA successfully genotyped 182 (91 %) of these samples, as follows : 77 (42 %) subtype A, 57 (31 %) subtype B, 5 (3 %) subtype C, 5 (3 %) subtype D, 8 (4 %) subtype E, 22 (12 %) subtype F, 5 (3 %) subtype G, and 3 (2 %) subtype H. We were not able to genotype 12 samples by means of the HMA. These latter strains were sequenced, and phylogenetic analyses revealed that they were highly divergent subtype A-, D-, or G-related strains. Eight (of 12) subtype D strains were indeterminate by HMA, owing to the broad intrasubtype diversity, suggesting that new reference subtype D plasmids are required, as previously proposed. Thirty-seven strains belonging to the different subtypes were sequenced, and the results showed perfect concordance with the HMA results. Interlaboratory quality controls confirmed the reliability of the HMA for HIV-1 subtyping, despite the extensive viral variability. However, plasmid selection must be continuously revised to cover viral diversification. (Résumé d'auteur
Multicenter quality control of the detection of HIV-1 genome in semen before medically assisted procreation
No full textCouples in whom the man is HIV-1-positive may use medically assisted procreation in order to conceive a child without contaminating the female partner. But, before medically assisted procreation, the semen has to be processed to exclude HIV and tested for HIV nucleic acid before and after processing. The performance was evaluated of the technical protocols used to detect and quantify HIV-1 in 11 centers providing medically assisted procreation for couples with HIV-1 infected men by testing panels of seminal plasma and cells containing HIV-1 RNA and/or DNA. The performance of these tests varied due to the different assays used. False positive results were obtained in 14-19% of cases. The sensitivity for RNA detection in seminal plasma was 500-1,000 RNA copies/ml, over 500 RNA copies/10(6) cells in semen cells, and for DNA detection in semen cells 50-500 DNA copies/10(6) cells. The use of silica-based extraction seemed to increase the assay performance, whereas the use of internal controls to detect PCR inhibitor did not. This first quality control highlights the need for technical improvements of the assays to detect and quantify HIV in semen fractions and for regular evaluation of their performance. (c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc
HIV type 1 genetic diversity and genotypic drug susceptibility in the Republic of Moldova
No full textHIV-1 genetic diversity and, for the first time, genotypic drug susceptibility was investigated for strains circulating in the Republic of Moldova (of the former Soviet Union). Eighty-three samples from adults recently infected by intravenous drug use (IDU) (n = 60), heterosexual contact (n = 8), and from blood donors (n = 15) that tested positive from 1997 to 1998, and originating from different regions of Moldova were serotyped. By group-specific and subtype-specific peptide ELISA, patients were infected by serotype A (n = 65), serotype B (n = 1), or were nontypable (n = 17). Heteroduplex mobility assay (HMA) confirmed 11 subtype A and the one subtype B infection. Analyses of pol and env sequences for six of the IDUs confirmed that they were infected with subtype A strain. These strains clustered tightly with subtype A strains isolated from the former Soviet Union in phylogenetic analysis. No mutations associated with drug resistance were detected. The Republic of Moldova is culturally more closely related to Romania (where subtype F dominates the epidemic), but depends economically on Russia (where subtype A is established among IDUs). Thus, our results suggest that the spread of HIV in this region is driven by drug networks rather than being due to cultural similarities
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