Exploring how to counteract the world's energy insecurity and environmental pollution, this volume covers the production methods, properties, storage, engine tests, system modification, ...transportation and distribution, economics, safety aspects, applications, and material compatibility of alternative fuels. The esteemed editor highlights the importance of moving toward alternative fuels and the problems and environmental impact of depending on petroleum products. Each self-contained chapter focuses on a particular fuel source, including vegetable oils, biodiesel, methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether, liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas, hydrogen, electric, fuel cells, and fuel from nonfood crops.
Complementary and alternative medicine in the United States Institute of Medicine; Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Committee on the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by the American Public
2005, 20050326, 2005-04-13, 2005-06-15
eBook, Book
Odprti dostop
Integration of complementary and alternative medicine therapies (CAM) with conventional medicine is occurring in hospitals and physicians offices, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are covering ...CAM therapies, insurance coverage for CAM is increasing, and integrative medicine centers and clinics are being established, many with close ties to medical schools and teaching hospitals. In determining what care to provide, the goal should be comprehensive care that uses the best scientific evidence available regarding benefits and harm, encourages a focus on healing, recognizes the importance of compassion and caring, emphasizes the centrality of relationship-based care, encourages patients to share in decision making about therapeutic options, and promotes choices in care that can include complementary therapies where appropriate.
Numerous approaches to delivering integrative medicine have evolved. Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States identifies an urgent need for health systems research that focuses on identifying the elements of these models, the outcomes of care delivered in these models, and whether these models are cost-effective when compared to conventional practice settings.
It outlines areas of research in convention and CAM therapies, ways of integrating these therapies, development of curriculum that provides further education to health professionals, and an amendment of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act to improve quality, accurate labeling, research into use of supplements, incentives for privately funded research into their efficacy, and consumer protection against all potential hazards.
Atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) is a genetic ultrarare renal disease associated with overactivation of the alternative pathway of complement. Four gain-of-function mutations that form a ...hyperactive or deregulated C3 convertase have been identified in Factor B (FB) ligand binding sites. Here, we studied the functional consequences of 10 FB genetic changes recently identified from different aHUS cohorts. Using several tests for alternative C3 and C5 convertase formation and regulation, we identified two gain-of-function and potentially disease-relevant mutations that formed either an overactive convertase (M433I) or a convertase resistant to decay by FH (K298Q). One mutation (R178Q) produced a partially cleaved protein with no ligand binding or functional activity. Seven genetic changes led to near-normal or only slightly reduced ligand binding and functional activity compared with the most common polymorphism at position 7, R7. Notably, none of the algorithms used to predict the disease relevance of FB mutations agreed completely with the experimental data, suggesting that in silico approaches should be undertaken with caution. These data, combined with previously published results, suggest that 9 of 15 FB genetic changes identified in patients with aHUS are unrelated to disease pathogenesis. This study highlights that functional assessment of identified nucleotide changes in FB is mandatory to confirm disease association.
Alternative splicing of eukaryotic transcripts is a mechanism that enables cells to generate vast protein diversity from a limited number of genes. The mechanisms and outcomes of alternative splicing ...of individual transcripts are relatively well understood, and recent efforts have been directed towards studying splicing networks. It has become apparent that coordinated splicing networks regulate tissue and organ development, and that alternative splicing has important physiological functions in different developmental processes in humans.
The rapid growth of vehicles has resulted in continuing growth in China’s oil demand. This paper analyzes future trends of both direct and life cycle energy demand (ED) and greenhouse gas (GHG) ...emissions in China’s road transport sector, and assesses the effectiveness of possible reduction measures by using alternative vehicles/fuels. A model is developed to derive a historical trend and to project future trends. The government is assumed to do nothing additional in the future to influence the long-term trends in the business as usual (BAU) scenario. Four specific scenarios are used to describe the future cases where different alternative fuel/vehicles are applied. The best case scenario is set to represent the most optimized case. Direct ED and GHG emissions would reach 734 million tonnes of oil equivalent and 2384 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050 in the BAU case, respectively, more than 5.6 times of 2007 levels. Compared with the BAU case, the relative reductions achieved in the best case would be 15.8% and 27.6% for life cycle ED and GHG emissions, respectively. It is suggested for future policy implementation to support sustainable biofuel and high efficient electric-vehicles, and the deployment of coal-based fuels accompanied with low-carbon technology.
Prison by Any Other Name Schenwar, Maya; Law, Victoria; Alexander, Michelle
2020, 2020-07-21
eBook
A crucial indictment of widely embraced ';alternatives to incarceration' that exposes how many of these new approaches actually widen the net of punishment and surveillance';But what does it ...meanreallyto celebrate reforms that convert your home into your prison?' Michelle Alexander, from the forewordElectronic monitoring. Locked-down drug treatment centers. House arrest. Mandated psychiatric treatment. Data-driven surveillance. Extended probation. These are some of the key alternatives held up as cost-effective substitutes for jails and prisons. But many of these so-called reforms actually widen the net, weaving in new strands of punishment and control, and bringing new populations, who would not otherwise have been subject to imprisonment, under physical control by the state.As mainstream public opinion has begun to turn against mass incarceration, political figures on both sides of the spectrum are pushing for reform. Butthough they're promoted as steps to confront high rates of imprisonmentmany of these measures are transforming our homes and communities into prisons instead.In Prison by Any Other Name, activist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law reveal the way the kinder, gentler narrative of reform can obscure agendas of social control and challenge us to question the ways we replicate the status quo when pursuing change. A foreword by Michelle Alexander situates the book in the context of criminal justice reform conversations. Finally, the book offers a bolder vision for truly alternative justice practices.
This paper investigates the role the food movement has played in catalyzing the entrance of new farmers into alternative agriculture. I analyze 30 interviews with farmers who participate in ...Alternative Food Networks in southern Ohio to understand what kinds of strategies and support were important for facilitating their entrance into alternative agriculture. I develop a typology of three distinct pathways into alternative agriculture, based on the values and goals that motivated famers' decision to participate in alternative agriculture, their farming experience and skills, professional networks and socialization, land access, and persistence strategies. I show how farmers' pathways shape the kinds of enterprises they establish and their strategies for getting started and persisting in alternative agriculture. The farmers’ strategies include a reliance on non-farm income and wealth and non-production revenue strategies for some types of farmers, while other types of farmers are able to make it by farming full-time. The study identifies a new pathway into alternative agriculture: Returning farmers come from farm families, but left agriculture to pursue higher education or a non-farm career and then re-entered agriculture later in life through Alternative Food Networks.
•The food movement plays a role in motivating and facilitating the entrance of new farmers into alternative agriculture.•Farmers' pathways into alternative agriculture shape the kinds of enterprises they establish.•Beginning farmers in alternative agriculture rely on non-farm income and wealth and non-production revenue strategies.•Returning farmers left agriculture to pursue non-farm work and re-entered agriculture through Alternative Food Networks.
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