Wastewater-based epidemiology has potential as an early-warning tool for determining the presence of COVID-19 in a community. The University of Arizona (UArizona) utilized WBE paired with clinical ...testing as a surveillance tool to monitor the UArizona community for SARS-CoV-2 in near real-time, as students re-entered campus in the fall. Positive detection of virus RNA in wastewater lead to selected clinical testing, identification, and isolation of three infected individuals (one symptomatic and two asymptomatic) that averted potential disease transmission. This case study demonstrated the value of WBE as a tool to efficiently utilize resources for COVID-19 prevention and response. Thus, WBE coupled with targeted clinical testing was further conducted on 13 dorms during the course of the Fall semester (Table 3). In total, 91 wastewater samples resulted in positive detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA that successfully provided an early-warning for at least a single new reported case of infection (positive clinical test) among the residents living in the dorm. Overall, WBE proved to be an accurate diagnostic for new cases of COVID-19 with an 82.0% positive predictive value and an 88.9% negative predictive value. Increases in positive wastewater samples and clinical tests were noted following holiday-related activities. However, shelter-in-place policies proved to be effective in reducing the number of daily reported positive wastewater and clinical tests. This case study provides evidence for WBE paired with clinical testing and public health interventions to effectively contain potential outbreaks of COVID-19 in defined communities.
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•Positive detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater led to selected clinical testing.•WBE identified one symptomatic and two asymptomatic individuals in a dorm.•79 positive wastewater samples provided early warnings of infection(s) in 13 dorms.•Cases increased following holidays and shelter-in-place policies proved effective.•WBE paired with clinical testing and interventions effectively contained outbreaks.
Targeted wastewater surveillance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been proposed by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National ...Wastewater Surveillance System as a complementary approach to clinical surveillance to detect the presence of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) at high-density facilities and institutions such as university campuses, nursing homes, and correctional facilities. In this study we evaluated the efficacy of targeted wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA together with individual-level testing for outbreak mitigation on a university campus during Fall 2020 semester. Wastewater samples (n = 117) were collected weekly from manholes or sewer cleanouts that receive wastewater inputs from dormitories, community-use buildings, and a COVID-19 isolation dormitory. Quantitative RT-PCR N1 and N2 assays were used to measure SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid genes in wastewater. Due to varying human waste input in different buildings, pepper mild mottle virus (PMMV) RNA was also measured in all samples and used to normalize SARS-CoV-2 N1 and N2 RNA wastewater concentrations. In this study, temporal trends of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater samples mirrored trends in COVID-19 cases detected on campus. Normalizing SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations using human fecal indicator, PMMV enhanced the correlation between N1 and N2 gene abundances in wastewater with COVID-19 cases. N1 and N2 genes were significant predictors of COVID-19 cases in dormitories, and the N2 gene was significantly correlated with the number of detected COVID-19 cases in dormitories. By implementing several public health surveillance programs include targeted wastewater surveillance, individual-level testing, contact tracing, and quarantine/isolation facilities, university health administrators could act decisively during an outbreak on campus, resulting in rapid decline of newly detected COVID-19 cases. Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 is a proactive outbreak monitoring tool for university campuses seeking to continue higher education practices in person during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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•Targeted wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 on a college campus was assessed.•N1 and N2 genes in wastewater are reliable markers of COVID-19 cases in dormitories.•Normalizing N1 and N2 gene data with a human fecal marker increases reliability.•SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected more often in dormitory sewage with communal bathrooms.•Targeted wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 could be integrated into safe reopening plans of universities.
•Optimal control strategy of district cooling system with ice storage was proposed.•Neural network based model predictive control strategy was developed.•A physics-based model of the district cooling ...system was developed and validated.•Time-of-use and real-time pricing were considered in the case study.•The proposed optimal control scheme can effectively reduce operating costs.
Thermal energy storage can be utilized as an effective component in energy systems to maximize cost savings when time-of-use (TOU) pricing or real-time pricing (RTP) is in place. This study proposes a novel approach that can effectively predict performance and determine control strategy of thermal energy storage (i.e., ice storage) in a district cooling system. The proposed approach utilizes Neural Network (NN) based model predictive control (MPC) strategy coupled with a genetic algorithm (GA) optimizer and examines the effectiveness of using a NN model for a district cooling system with ice storage. The NN offers a relatively fast performance estimation of a district cooling system with given external inputs. To simulate the proposed MPC controller, a physics-based model of the district cooling system is first developed and validated to act as a virtual plant for the controller to communicate system states in real times. Next, the NN modeling the plant is developed and trained during a cooling period so that the control strategy is tested under the RTP and TOU pricing. This model is optimized using the GA due to the on/off controls for the district cooling network. Finally, a thermal load prediction algorithm is integrated to test under perfect weather inputs and weather forecasts by considering 1-hour discretization in the MPC scheme. Results indicate that for the month of August, the optimal control scheme can effectively adapt to varying loads and varying prices to effectively reduce operating costs of the district cooling network by approximately 16% and 13% under the TOU pricing and the RTP, respectively.
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•Carbon footprint is main environmental hurdle towards sustainable development goals.•Accurate assessment of carbon footprint is key to achieve SDGs.•We use used integrative review ...strategy to report novel findings.
An accurate assessment of carbon footprint is one of the key elements to evaluate progress towards sustainable development. Although, recent studies have extensively analyzed carbon footprint, the scientific contribution related to universities and higher education institutes requires further consideration. The current study provides a detailed integrative review of universities’ carbon footprint to provide contextual information and novel findings. Our novel review strategy allows us to report thematic analysis, co-citation analysis, research collaboration analysis, and methodological and topical contribution. As policymakers prioritize sustainable development, we allow them to understand different dynamics of academic institutions’ carbon footprint and report policy suggestions to improve it. As any change at higher research institutions has a wider impact on society in general, it is our opinion that developing sustainable university campuses also has implications for future research, management practices and compliance with sustainable development goals.
Objetivo. Verificar el cumplimiento del principio de ecualización de la empatía con el paciente en los estudiantes de la Facultad Odontología de dos sedes de la Universidad Andrés Bello: República ...(Región Metropolitana) y Viña del Mar (Quinta Región), Chile. Material y métodos. Se empleó la Escala de Empatía Médica de Jefferson (versión S) adaptada por criterio de jueces para estudiantes de odontología. Se estimaron las medias, error estándar de las medias y el intervalo de confianza de los datos en torno de la media dentro y entre de los tres factores estudiados: Sedes, Curso y Sexo y sus interacciones. Se compararon las medias de los niveles mediante un análisis de varianza trifactorial. Se estimó la prueba eta cuadrada y la potencia de la prueba para determinar la magnitud de las diferencias y la potencia del modelo estadístico empleado. El nivel de significación utilizado fue de ?<0,05 y ?<0,20. Resultados. Se encontraron pocas diferencias significativas entre las medias. Las diferencias fundamentales afectaron principalmente a una de las dimensiones cognitivas de la empatía: “Habilidad para entender a otros”. Aunque la simetría de los niveles de los factores y sus interacciones no afectan totalmente la similaridad del comportamiento empático entre las sedes de la universidad estudiada, la presencia de diferencias muestra la necesidad de prestar más atención a la formación empática en los estudiantes de odontología. Conclusiones. Es necesario considerar estas diferencias encontradas entre las sedes para analizar las causas que las producen y realizar las intervenciones pertinentes para disminuir estas diferencias.
This study investigates how socio-demographic and attitudinal variables of university students affect their desire to increase or decrease their daily commute. The case study is McMaster University ...in Hamilton, Canada, and data was obtained by means of a web-based survey that included questions regarding travel behavior, socio-demographic information, and attitudes toward travel, land use, and the environment. The objective variable is defined as the ratio of ideal to actual commute time, and regression analysis is implemented to test the relationship between this variable and socio-demographic variables and attitudinal scores. The impact of different attitudes on the gap between ideal and actual commute time is expanded to include three different modes, active travel (walk/cycle), transit, and personal automobile. Interestingly, the results indicate that active travelers tend to be less dissatisfied with their commute, followed by those who travel in a personal vehicle and transit users. A number of attitudinal responses are shown to impact the desire to travel more or less, including variables that relate to the social environment, availability of local activities, quality of facilities, productive use of the commute, and the intrinsic value found in the commute travel. The picture emerges of a traveler who would like to spend more time commuting, as someone who is an active traveler, thinks that getting there is half the fun, dislikes traveling alone, but rather likes to live in an active neighborhood where there is a sense of community. The results suggests that enjoyment of commuting, while a challenge from the perspective of motorized mobility, may provide valuable policy opportunities from the perspective of active transportation.
•Hybrid solar/wind-biomass system showed high synergetic performance.•Utilizing biomass to supply the baseload increased demand-met by the hybrid system.•An integrated hybrid energy storage increased ...the system’s autonomy significantly.•Achieving carbon–neutral campuses smoothens countrys’ transition to 100% renewables.•The proposed system is feasible and can meet close to 100% of the energy demand.
The incorporation of energy storing units into hybrid systems reallocates the excess electricity to meet demand requirements in the deficiency periods. This study seeks to determine the optimal size of a Photovoltaic (PV)/wind/biomass hybrid system with and without energy storage built on the base of boosting the demand–supply fraction (DSF) and the renewable energy fraction (FR) with a net present value larger than or equals to zero. The Generalized Reduced Gradient algorithm has been utilized in this study to evaluate the optimal components’ capacities of the proposed system. Middle East Technical University Northern Cyprus Campus was used as a case study. The proposed system consists of 1.79 MW PV, 2 MW wind and 0.92 MW biomass systems with 24.39 MWh pumped hydro storage system and 148.64 kWh batteries achieving FR of 99.59%, DSF of 98.86%, and a cost of electricity equals to 0.1626 $/kWh. The simulations results proved that the integration of a hybrid energy storage system with the PV/wind/biomass system ensures very high autonomy approaching almost 99%. Finally, considering the significant excess energy produced by the tri-hybrid system, this excess could also be allocated towards meeting the campus’s thermal and domestic hot water demands creating a polygeneration power system.
This study aims to assess the effect of green open space (GOS) on the microclimate and thermal comfort in three integrated campuses namely Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Universitas Muhammadiyah ...Yogyakarta (UMY), and Universitas Pembangunan Nasional (UPN) Veteran. In order to achieve the research objective, three main steps were conducted. First, we mapped the GOS area and density of the three integrated campuses using a high-resolution satellite imagery. Second, three microclimate parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed were measured to each detected green spaces in the morning (08:00 am), at noon (01:00 pm), and afternoon (5:00 pm). Subsequently, the results of microclimate measurements were used to calculate the level of thermal comfort using Thermal Humidity Index (THI) method. Third, we carried out statistical analysis to investigate the correlation between the distribution and the density of GOS and the microclimate conditions. The results showed that a negative (-) correlation occurred between the pattern and density of GOS with temperature and wind speed indicating that clustered GOS significantly reduces the air temperature as well as the wind speed. On the contrary, the relative humidity has been increased. UPN campus has the highest temperature and wind speed and the lowest humidity among other campuses. According to the results of THI, a 100% of the UPN areas are uncomfortable, while at UGM and UMY 42,08% and 11,28% of their area are uncomfortable, respectively. This study found that the existence of GOS has an effect on microclimate depending on pattern and density.
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