Annual Usage Research Articles

In silico evaluation of interactions between antibiotics in aquaculture and nuclear hormone receptors

Antibiotics have been commonly used as antimicrobial agents in the process of aquaculture worldwide. However, very few studies are available on the endocrine disruption-related health risks brought about by antibiotic residues from human consumption of aquatic products. Nuclear hormone receptors (NHRs) could mediate many endocrine-disrupting activities. Therefore, in the present study, a reverse docking method was used to predict the direct binding interactions between 16 NHR conformations and 15 common antibiotics in aquaculture, thereby determining their potential endocrine-disrupting risks. To reach a compromise between the extremely scarce experimental data and an urgent need for distinguishing antibiotics of high concern with potential food-borne endocrine-disrupting risks in aquaculture, a risk-ranking system was then developed based on a comprehensive risk score for each category of antibiotics, which was the sum of the products of endocrine-disrupting potential coefficients and annual usages of antibiotics in aquaculture. The results indicated that 15% of 224 docking simulations showed a relatively high probability of binding. Sulfonamides seemed to possess the greatest endocrine-disrupting potential. The antagonistic conformation of the androgen receptor was the most susceptible NHR conformation. The rank orders of the endocrine-disrupting risk of different categories of antibiotics varied greatly from country to country, which were significantly affected by the annual usage. These findings pose questions regarding public health and safety associated with human consumption of antibiotic-containing aquatic products. In addition, we provide an approach to rank antibiotics for a specific country or region, with respect to their potential endocrine-disrupting activity, that can be used to inform regulation and prioritize experimental verification.

Volatile organic compounds concentration profiles and control strategy in container manufacturing industry: Case studies in China

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), important precursors of ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), are the key to curb the momentum of O3 growth and further reducing PM2.5 in China. Container manufacturing industry is one of the major VOC emitters, and more than 96% containers of the world are produced in China, with the annual usage of coatings of over 200,000 tons in recent years. This is the first research on the emission characteristics of VOCs in Chinese container manufacturing industry, including concentration and ozone formation potential (OFP) of each species. The result shows that the largest amounts of VOCs are emitted during the pretreatment process, followed by the paint mixing process and primer painting process, and finally other sprays process. The average VOC concentrations in the workshops, the exhausts before treatment and the exhausts after treatment are ranging from 82.67–797.46 , 170–1,812.65 , 66.20–349.63 mg/m3, respectively. Benzenes, alcohols and ethers are main species, which contribute more than 90% OFP together. Based on the emission characteristics of VOCs and the technical feasibility, it is recommended to set the emission limit in standard of benzene to 1.0 mg/m3, toluene to 10 mg/m3, xylene to 20 mg/m3, benzenes to 40 mg/m3, alcohols and ethers to 50 mg/m3, and VOCs to 100 mg/m3. The study reports the industry emission characteristics and discusses the standard limits, which is a powerful support to promote VOCs emission reduction, and to promote the coordinated control of PM2.5 and O3 pollution.

Evaluation of the fatigue life of a tractor’s transmission spiral bevel gear

Conventional tractor transmission spiral bevel gears are designed and evaluated based on the engine rated load, which is significantly higher than the load conditions in the field. In this study, the fatigue life of a spiral bevel gear is evaluated to obtain data for design optimization. The equivalent load was calculated using the field load data, and the integrated equivalent load was calculated based on the annual usage of major field operations in Korea. The fatigue life of three spiral bevel gear samples was evaluated using the accelerated life test (ALT) under an engine rated load condition of 120%. It was also evaluated under engine rated, plow equivalent, and integrated equivalent load. Fatigue life was estimated using the ALT results and the fatigue damage exponent based on the ALT equation. We observed that the fatigue life of the spiral bevel gear under the plow equivalent and integrated equivalent loads is higher than that under the rated load by 214 and 9,400 times, respectively. The results of this study can provide useful information for the design optimization of tractor transmission spiral bevel gears considering the field equivalent load.

KİMYASAL GÜBRE TÜKETİMİNİN DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ: BURSA İLİ ÖRNEĞİ

In this study, fertilizer types used in Bursa province between 2008 and 2016 were classified according to their chemical structure and their annual usage according to districts were calculated per unit of land. Amount of the fertilizer types used in districts were mapped with Geographical Information System and the statistical relationships between the types of agricultural product and fertilizer were calculated by correlation and regression analysis. Due to the increase in population and exports of Bursa, the fertilizer usage with agricultural production increased. Nitrogen fertilizers were determined to have the highest usage among other fertilizer groups. The usages of fertilizers of nitrogen (maximum 82.47 kg/ha-Karacabey), nitrogen phosphorus potassium (maximum 31.59 - kg/ha-Karacabey), and calcium nitrate (maximum 8.1 kg / ha-Yenisehir), nitrogen and phosphorus (maximum 58.45 kg/ha-Yenisehir) were more found in Karacabey, Yenisehir, Mustafakemalpasa ve Inegol. TSP (maximum 12.5 kg / ha-Gursu) and zinc (maximum 26.84 kg / ha-Gemlik) fertilizers were used more in Gursu, Orhangazi, Mudanya, Gemlik and Iznik than the other districts. The higher correlation (r2) values than the others were found between nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers and field crops and vegetable production (0.423-0.788). Nitrogenous, nitrogenous and phosphorous and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers were found to be positively related to crop production and effective in production. This study is important in order to determine the distribution of agricultural fertilizer usage, which is the diffuse pollution source, by districts and to provide information to fertilizer management studies that could be done to reduce pollution.

Healthcare Service Usage and Costs for Elderly Patients with Obstructive Lung Disease.

BackgroundThe worldwide prevalence of obstructive lung disease (OLD) is increasing, especially among people >65 years old, and nearly three in four adults with OLD have two or more comorbid conditions. This study describes the impact of such comorbidities on the healthcare service usage and related costs in a country with universal health coverage, basing on a large cohort of elderly patients with OLD and employing real-world data.MethodsWe carried out a retrospective cohort study on a large population of elderly (age >64 years) patients with OLD served by a Local Health Unit in northern Italy. Their comorbidities were assessed using the clinical diagnoses assigned by the Adjusted Clinical Group (ACG) system to individual patients by combining different information flows. Correlations between number of comorbidities and total annual healthcare service usage and costs were examined with Spearman’s test. Regression models were applied to analyze the associations between the above-mentioned variables, adjusting for age and sex.ResultsAll types of healthcare service usage (access to emergency care; number of outpatient visits; number of hospital admissions) and pharmacy costs increased significantly with the number of comorbidities. Average total annual costs increased steadily with the number of comorbidities, ranging from € 1158.84 with no comorbidities up to € 9666.60 with 6 comorbidities or more. Poisson regression analyses showed an independent association between the number of comorbidities and the use of every type of healthcare service.ConclusionThese results based on real-world data provide evidence that the burden of care for OLD patients related to their comorbidities is independent of and in addition to the burden related to OLD alone and is strongly dependent on the number of comorbidities, suggesting a holistic approach to multimorbid patients with OLD is the most sound public health strategy.

To Guilt or To Vacation: Constraining Effects of Guilt on Vacation Decisions

Annual usage of paid leave in America has been declining although employees are granted more time off than before. This study proposes that taking paid leave for a vacation is perceived as a violation of workplace norms, which could partly explain this phenomenon. This violation is presumed to pose a threat to an employee’s social self at work. The accompanying guilt from such a threat is hypothesized to lead to lower vacation intention and more reparative actions (e.g. apologizing and decreasing vacation length). These consequences align with social self preservation theory, which posits that individuals aim to preserve a positive social self. Empirical results indicate that guilt fully mediates the impact of threats to the workplace social self on travel intentions and partially mediates the effects of such threats on reparative actions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The effectiveness of prescription support and treatment reporting system on the appropriate usage of oral third-generation cephalosporins

IntroductionPreauthorization and prospective audit and feedback system are reported to be effective for the achievement of appropriate use of intravenous antimicrobials, but few reports on oral antimicrobials are available, especially for adults. MethodsThe prescription of oral third-generation cephalosporins (oral 3rd Ceph) for inpatients and outpatients from 2013 to 2018 was investigated. The study period was divided into three phases. First, prescription support to suggest discontinuation of antimicrobials for unnecessary prescriptions, and alternative antimicrobials for inappropriate prescriptions were provided. Next, we continued prescription monitoring, and observed the trends of antimicrobial prescription without support. Finally, we have introduced prescription reporting system to promote the appropriate use of oral 3rd Ceph. In each phase, we evaluated days of therapy per 1000 patient-days and prescriptions per 1000 visits as an index of effectiveness of our interventions. ResultsThe total annual amount of oral 3rd Ceph usage decreased significantly over time between phases, respectively. During the same period, the incidence rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria, and AmpC β-lactamase (AmpC)-producing bacteria was not changed significantly, indicating that oral 3rd Ceph usage was reduced without a concomitant increase of the drug-resistant bacteria. Simultaneously, the annual usage of other broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents such as oral fluoroquinolones and oral macrolides also decreased, which indicated these antimicrobials were not prescribed as an alternative for oral 3rd Ceph. ConclusionsThe combination of prescription support activity and treatment reporting system for oral antimicrobial agents is an effective method for promoting appropriate oral antimicrobial use.

Technical and Economic Features of Tractors in the Second Hand Market in Sanliurfa Province

In this study, it was aimed to determine various parameters of tractor use in agricultural production in Şanlıurfa province and the tendency of the farmers in the region towards tractor use by analyzing the collected data and obtaining generalizable results. In this context, an information gathering form was prepared to determine the technical and economic characteristics of tractors in the second-hand tractor market. The 450 information gathering forms were filled in face to face with the tractor dealers in the province, the dealer (broker) trading tractors and the vendors in the tractor market. The collected data were analyzed with the help of different statistical analysis programs. According to the results, the average rated engine power for tractors in the second hand market was determined as 57 kW. In addition, the average annual usage time of tractors in the second-hand market has been determined as 432.8 h, and other operating parameters related to the use of tractors include age, rated engine power, engine, gearbox, hydraulic system, cabin/hood and tires, and average annual usage. duration, estimated selling price, depreciation characteristics, etc. parameters were determined for tractors and the obtained data were evaluated by multiple regression analysis and the results were examined.

A Hybrid Optimization Approach for Autonomy Enhancement of Nearly-Zero-Energy Buildings Based on Battery Performance and Artificial Neural Networks

Reducing the primary energy consumption in buildings and simultaneously increasing self-consumption from renewable energy sources in nearly-zero-energy buildings, as per the 2010/31/EU directive, is crucial nowadays. This work solved the problem of nearly zeroing the net grid electrical energy in buildings in real time. This target was achieved using linear programming (LP)—a convex optimization technique leading to global solutions—to optimally decide the daily charging or discharging (dispatch) of the energy storage in an adaptive manner, in real time, and hence control and minimize both the import and export grid energies. LP was assisted by equally powerful methods, such as artificial neural networks (ANN) for forecasting the building’s load demand and photovoltaic (PV) on a 24 hour basis, and genetic algorithm (GA)—a heuristic optimization technique—for driving the optimum dispatch. Moreover, to address the non-linear nature of the battery and model the energy dispatch in a more realistic manner, the proven freeware system advisor model (SAM) of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was integrated with the proposed approach to give the final dispatch. Assessing the case of a building, the results showed that the annual hourly profile of the import and export energies was smoothed and flattened, as compared to the cases without storage and/or using a conventional controller. With the proposed approach, the annual aggregated grid usage was reduced by 53% and the building’s annual energy needs were covered by the renewable energy system at a rate of 60%. It was therefore concluded that the proposed hybrid methodology can provide a tool to maximize the autonomy of nearly-zero-energy buildings and bring them a step closer to implementation.

Real-time optimization of multi-cell industrial evaporative cooling towers using machine learning and particle swarm optimization

Existing electrical generating stations must operate with greater flexibility due to increasing renewable energy penetration on the electrical grid, and many coal-fired power stations have transitioned away from baseload operation to load-following operation to aid in grid stability. In cases where multiple independently controlled cooling tower cells are used in parallel for the cooling purposes of such stations, there is an opportunity to increase plant efficiency through data-driven optimization across their full load ranges. This work presents a novel application of real-time optimization using machine learning and particle swarm optimization on a multi-cell induced-draft cooling tower servicing a coal-fired power station under variable load. This is the first work to demonstrate simultaneous optimization of a multi-cell cooling tower, in addition to using machine learning for closed-loop control on a cooling tower. A novel control configuration is presented that ensures original control logic is not adversely affected and that the overall plant process is not disrupted using only existing hardware and operational data. To verify this methodology, the 12 independent cooling tower cells are simulated in parallel using historic operating data to demonstrate the effectiveness of real-time optimization compared to current practice. An artificial neural network is trained to predict overall cooling tower power consumption using only operational data and ambient conditions with an R2 value of greater than 0.96. The real-time optimization using particle swarm yields 6.7% annual energy usage savings compared to current practices, although the extent of the real-time savings varies greatly with both plant load and environmental conditions. This is particularly significant for a variable load situation because frequent ramping typically results in reduced overall efficiency. This proposed AI-based solution presents an opportunity to improve the overall heat rate of a load-following coal-fired power plant without the need to perform extensive first-principles modeling or add additional hardware to the cooling tower, resulting in more resources conserved and less overall emissions per unit of electricity generated.

A new strategy to benchmark and evaluate building electricity usage using multiple data mining technologies

This study presents a new strategy using cluster analysis, multivariate adaptive regression splines and conditional inference trees to benchmark and evaluate building electricity usage. Different from the existing studies, cluster analysis was first used to group buildings based on their annual electricity usage patterns in order to improve the accuracy of the benchmarking result. Multivariate adaptive regression splines technique was then applied to capture the non-linear relationships (i.e. benchmarking models) between building electricity usage per square meter and explanatory factors with enhanced interpretability. Conditional inference trees technique was further used to evaluate the benchmarking result. The performance of this strategy was evaluated using two-year time-series electricity usage data of 20 university buildings. The results showed that the multivariate adaptive regression splines can effectively describe the complex non-linear relationships between building electricity usage per square meter and explanatory variables. The conditional inference trees can help identify conditions when buildings had higher electricity usage. The results obtained from this study can be further used to assist in building energy auditing, and fault detection and diagnosis.

Utilization Management of Highway Operations Equipment

This paper presents fleet utilization management processes for highway operations equipment based on actual tracked and reported usage data obtained from transportation agencies. The objective is to minimize total fleet utilization costs, including operational, purchase, and relocation expenses that yield the optimal utilization values and fleet composition of specific equipment types within each region in a year. The framework includes utilization prediction and optimization models, rather than relying on pre-determined utilization thresholds in existing strategies, to avoid under-utilization, over-utilization, or both. The prediction models are structured using equipment explanatory variables with their significant contributing factors, for example, annual equipment usage, annual fuel cost, downtime hours, age, and class code, to predict operational costs. The optimization model is formulated as a set of mathematical formulations, with embedded predictive models, that minimizes the total costs of (i) keeping an asset in-service using predictive annual operational cost functions, (ii) purchasing new assets in a region in the following year, and (iii) relocating assets by capturing the distance between regions. The costs include equipment purchase, operation, maintenance, and transportation expenses. The proposed framework captures the remedial actions to balance under-/over-utilized assets in the fleet in a cost-efficient manner. The proposed methodology is applied to utilization management of a set of operations equipment, and the findings of the dump trucks are presented. Several scenarios are designed to analyze the sensitivity of the costs to various decisions and parameters. The numerical experiments reveal that the proposed framework can facilitate the utilization prediction and management of highway operations equipment and save up to 16.6% in operational costs considering different demand scenarios.

Spatial and temporal distribution of the currently-used and recently-banned pesticides in arable soils of the Czech Republic

This study presents monitoring data on the spatial and temporal occurrence of pesticide residues in arable soils of the Czech Republic and relates it to soil properties, pesticide usage and data on application provided by farmers. In total, 34 soils were sampled during 2014–2017, amounting to 136 samples which were analyzed for 60 pesticides and four transformation products. Conazole fungicides were frequently present in soils above the limit of quantification and/or above the 0.01 mg/kg threshold. Of the other pesticide types, the herbicides diflufenican, chlorotoluron, metolachlor, pendimethalin and terbuthylazine, fungicides azoxystrobin, carbendazim, fenpropidin, fenpropimorph and prochloraz and the insecticide methoxyfenozide were found in ≥20% of soils in at least one sampling campaign. Soils typically (>50%) contained 2–7 residues with a maximum of 14. For the 136 samples, 116 different mixtures were identified. The occurrence of pesticides was driven by their annual usage, their half-lives in soil, and their hydrophobicity. A comparison of the monitoring data and pesticide application data provided by farmers revealed that 63% of the applied pesticides are not likely to persist until the following growing season while up to 69% of pesticide residues found in soils could be inherited from the previous growing season(s).

Evaluate the efficiency of the Environmental Management System Iso 14001:2015 at The Vietnam Onamba Company

Nowadays, the benefits of ISO 14001:2015 abound, for minimizing environmental footprints, providing operational improvements, bringing lucrative business and improving the company’s image. There is an annual audit to decide if the company’s environmental management system meets the requirements of ISO 14001:2015. This is a significant audit that strongly affects the current certificate. The study to “Evaluate the efficiency of the environmental management system ISO 14001:2015 at the Vietnam Onamba Company” has been conducted to research the internal audit and examine any discordance in the environmental management system. The study carries out the internal audit of the environmental management system ISO 14001:2015 at VTO company by 3P method (P1: Paper check, P2: People interview, P3: Practice Observe). The result of the study showed a minor discordance at (6.2) Environmental Objectives and planning to achieve them. Regarding other clauses, they meet the requirements of the environmental management system. The result shows that the responsibility and careful observation of the company in controlling the system. The study evaluates reducing consumption (electricity, water, and chemicals) through collecting and comparing the data between 2017 and 2018. The results show the efficiency of reducing consumption: monthly electricity consumption reduced 21,86% (377 MWh); monthly water usage reduced 17,89% (1421 m3); annual chemical usage reduced from 3 to 6%.

Analysis of the effectiveness of two noninvasive fecal tests used to screen for colorectal cancer in average-risk adults

ObjectivesColorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Although a significant proportion of CRC cases and deaths are preventable by screening, the morbidity and mortality from CRC remains high and is attributed to suboptimal screening rates. Low levels of population CRC screening uptake may be due to reluctance toward invasiveness of some screening tests, embarrassment, exposure to anesthesia, and grueling preparation, especially for the invasive screening tests. Noninvasive tests overcome many of these barriers because they are more convenient and potentially more attractive to patients compared to invasive tests. This study uses Markov cohort simulation model developed with the help of TreeAge pro software to compare two noninvasive fecal CRC screens, fecal immunohistochemical test (FIT) and multitarget stool DNA test (Mt-sDNA) with no screening in order to identify the more effective noninvasive fecal test to screen for colorectal cancer in average-risk adults. Study designSimulation study developed with Markov model using TreeAge pro software, which included a hypothetical cohort at the average risk of developing colorectal cancer. MethodsMarkov model was used to compare population-level CRC-related cases and deaths averted, life-years gained (LYG), and colonoscopies required for two noninvasive CRC screening strategies compared with no screening: annual fecal immunohistochemical testing (FIT) and 3-yearly multitarget stool DNA testing (Mt-sDNA). The model simulated the natural history of the adenoma-carcinoma sequence in average-risk persons starting at age 50 years, and natural history parameters were estimated from the literature and via verification to data on precancerous lesions (i.e. adenomas) and CRC incidence. Screening strategies were then superimposed on the natural history component of the model, allowing for precancerous lesions to be detected and removed, or CRC to be detected and treated at a potentially earlier stage. The sensitivity and specificity for each screen for precancerous lesions and CRC were the performance parameters used to estimate the effectiveness. ResultsAnnual FIT was more effective than three yearly Mt-sDNA in reducing CRC cases, averting CRC-related deaths, and increasing the LYG compared to no screening. On average, annual FIT resulted in 3.5 fewer CRC cases, and 2.9 fewer CRC deaths per 1000 persons screened compared to 3-yearly Mt-sDNA. Annual FIT usage resulted in a 0.18 LYG compared to Mt-sDNA, which allowed 0.16 LYG, and an annual FIT screening led to a total of 203 more colonoscopies performed compared to Mt-sDNA. One-way sensitivity analysis conducted over the sensitivity rates of each screen by type of lesion showed that FIT remained the more effective strategy for all ranges of sensitivity. Threshold analysis results identified the lowest FIT sensitivity value at which Mt-sDNA performed better for conventional high-risk adenomas and CRC detection to be 0.16 and 0.052, respectively. ConclusionBoth the noninvasive screens were effective compared to no screening. Additionally, annual FIT as a first step noninvasive screening test for CRC appears to be more effective compared to three-yearly Mt-sDNA.

Long-term surface water trends and relationship with open water evaporation losses in the Namoi catchment, Australia

Economic pressures on natural resources have led to a modification of natural surface water patterns. This has affected the hydrologic cycle at a global scale with multiple environmental and socioeconomic implications. This study evaluates long-term trends in surface water occurrence and related climate variables in a large agricultural catchment of Australia to understand trends in evaporative water losses from open water bodies. Surface water detection was based on a supervised classification of Landsat images between 1988 and 2018 to obtain inundation and surface water frequencies across the catchment, which were compared with other surface water products. Climate trends were based on monthly SILO gridded datasets. Open water evaporation was estimated using the FAO56 methodology and compared with the Penman-Monteith-Leuning Evapotranspiration V2 (PML_V2) product. Evaporation trends were analysed using the Mann Kendall (MK) test and the Sen’s slope (SS). Generally, open water frequencies showed significant negative trends, though these varied spatially. The number of dams, on the other hand, had an increasing trend. Temperatures are increasing in the catchment, while rainfall and relative humidity are decreasing, resulting in an overall positive trend for reference evapotranspiration (ETr) across 90% of the catchment. Even though ETr and evaporation per unit area of water show positive trends, lumped open water evaporation showed a negative trend, possibly associated with an average decrease in surface water frequencies. Annual evaporative losses averaged 201.9 GL, exceeding annual total account usage of surface water in the catchment. All the studied changes imply a loss of blue and green water in the catchment, and provide evidence of an overall intensification of the hydrologic cycle as predicted under climate change.

Can We Predict Usage of Dental Services? An Analysis from Germany 2000 to 2015.

Objectives:We aimed to predict the usage of dental services in Germany from 2000 to 2015 based on epidemiologic and demographic data, and to compare these predictions against claims within the statutory health insurance.Methods:Indicators for operative (number of coronally decayed or filled teeth, root surface caries lesions, and fillings), prosthetic (number of missing teeth), and periodontal treatment needs (number of teeth with probing pocket depths (PPDs) ≥ 4 mm) from nationally representative German Oral Health Studies (1997, 2005, 2014) were cross-sectionally interpolated across age and time, and combined with year- and age-specific population estimates. These, as well as the number of children eligible for individual preventive services (aged 6 to 17 y), were adjusted for age- and time-specific insurance status and services’ utilization to yield predicted usage of operative, prosthetic, periodontal, and preventive services. Cumulative annual usage in these 4 services groups were compared against aggregations of a total of 24 claims positions from the statutory German health insurance.Results:Morbidity, utilization, and demography were highly dynamic across age groups and over time. Despite improvements of individual oral health, predicted usage of dental services did not decrease over time, but increased mainly due to usage shifts from younger (shrinking) to older (growing) age groups. Predicted usage of operative services increased between 2000 and 2015 (from 52 million to 56 million, +7.8%); predictions largely agreed with claimed services (root mean square error [RMSE] 1.9 million services, error range −4.6/+3.8%). Prosthetic services increased (from 2.4 million to 2.6 million, +11.9%), with near perfect agreement to claimed data [RMSE 0.1 million services, error range −8.3/+3.9%]). Periodontal services also increased (from 21 million to 27 million, +25.9%; RMSE 5.2 million services, error range +21.9/+36.5%), as did preventive services (from 22 million to 27 million, +20.4%; RMSE 3 million, error range −13.7/−4.7%).Conclusion:Predicting dental services seems viable when accounting for the joint dynamics of morbidity, utilization, and demographics.Knowledge Transfer Statement:Based on epidemiologic and demographic data, predicting usage of certain dental services is viable when accounting for the dynamics of morbidity, utilization, and demographics.

Towards sustainable developing cities: A simplified forecasting model for sizing grid-tied PV using monthly electricity bills

The recent reductions in PV costs and the convenient concurrence of insolation and schools’ energy usage have resulted in increased interest in augmenting supply with solar PV to save on energy costs and unburden the grid in developing countries. However, optimal sizing of PV solutions requires a detailed analysis and hourly simulation to match demand, council tariff structures (incl. import vs. export rates) and geography. This complexity exposes already resource-constrained authorities to abuse by overzealous and unwitting suppliers, and currently impedes large-scale deployment of solar PV in a sunshiny cities depraved of its requisite energy. We present a novel approach to forecast schools’ hourly demand using only monthly utility bills and a trained forecasting model. We also propose an iterative solar sizing technique to assess the economic viability of using PV at schools to support government and city council officials. The results show that the method is able to forecast annual energy usage and monthly demand to within 5% and 6% respectively, while accurately determining the potential return on investment.

Identifying and Prioritizing Chemicals with Uncertain Burden of Exposure: Opportunities for Biomonitoring and Health-Related Research

Background:The National Institutes of Health’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) initiative aims to understand the impact of environmental factors on childhood disease. More than 40,000 chemicals are currently in commercial use in the United States. The challenge is to prioritize chemicals for biomonitoring that may present health risk concerns.Objectives:Our aim was to prioritize chemicals that may elicit child health effects of interest to ECHO but that have not been biomonitored nationwide and to identify gaps needing additional research.Methods:We searched databases and the literature for chemicals in environmental media and in consumer products that were potentially toxic. We selected chemicals that were not measured in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. From over 700 chemicals, we chose 155 chemicals and created eight chemical panels. For each chemical, we compiled biomonitoring and toxicity data, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exposure predictions, and annual production usage. We also applied predictive modeling to estimate toxicity. Using these data, we recommended chemicals either for biomonitoring, to be deferred pending additional data, or as low priority for biomonitoring.Results:For the 155 chemicals, 97 were measured in food or water, 67 in air or house dust, and 52 in biospecimens. We found in vivo endocrine, developmental, reproductive, and neurotoxic effects for 61, 74, 47, and 32 chemicals, respectively. Eighty-six had data from high-throughput in vitro assays. Positive results for endocrine, developmental, neurotoxicity, and obesity were observed for 32, 11, 35, and 60 chemicals, respectively. Predictive modeling results suggested 90% are toxicants. Biomarkers were reported for 76 chemicals. Thirty-six were recommended for biomonitoring, 108 deferred pending additional research, and 11 as low priority for biomonitoring.Discussion:The 108 deferred chemicals included those lacking biomonitoring methods or toxicity data, representing an opportunity for future research. Our evaluation was, in general, limited by the large number of unmeasured or untested chemicals. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5133

Systematic review of indicators for the assessment of water consumption rates at hospitals

Abstract This study reviews the pertinent literature and summarizes water consumption indicators (CI) for hospitals. To facilitate comparison, two consistent metrics are highlighted, namely the annual water usage per bed (m3/bed/year) and per built area (m3/m2/year) for the different locations. Overall, the review reveals a wide variation among water consumption indicators. Hospitals in Italy have a reported use of 458 m3/bed/year, the highest indicator reported; the lowest CI among the reviewed articles was for German public hospitals at 103 m3/bed/year. Not surprisingly, higher water tariffs tend to reduce consumption, while higher per capita income increases consumption. Yet overall CI values tended to reflect a variety of causes, including activity level, laundry arrangements, water costs, the application of sustainable practices, environmental certification and other considerations. Given the high indicator values identified for Brazilian hospitals, future research might consider a more detailed study of how their water consumption might be better managed.