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This presentation gives an overview of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP). The SANREM CRSP utilizes a systems approach to promote many goals including the improvement of agricultural productivity, the empowerment of smallholders, and the promotion of sustainable development. This presentation shows the different components, partners, and structure of the SANREM CRSP, the extent of capacity building efforts, and the long-term research activities for Phase IV. ME (Management Entity)

This paper discusses the process of wind model validation against field measurements.

Evictions occur when a landlord expels renters from residing in property the landlord owns. Recent data suggest that approximately 40% of residential households in California from years 2012 to 2016 are occupied by renters. The prevalence of renting along with increasing awareness of evictions make studying the causes of eviction a topic of interest for public officials, scholars, housing service providers, and the renter population among others. High cost of living is a direct common cause of evictions across the US. This paper examines and presents a study on the connection between energy burden (how much a single household pays for electricity out of its total household income) and eviction rate. Analysis relies on the application of quantitative research methods using census tract level data from 2012 to 2016 over the service territory of Southern California Edison (SCE). This study uses models that account for both time-variant and time-invariant effects of other key cost and household demographic variables on eviction rate. By taking this approach, the author attempts to separate an unbiased effect of energy burden, which could inform predictions about whether high energy burden is generally accompanied by high eviction rates. Preliminary results suggest that there is a borderline significant positive correlation between energy burden and the unobserved time-invariant census tract level heterogeneity that contributes to higher eviction rates.

Report and presentation completed by students enrolled in PA 5242: Environmental Planning, Policy, and DM, taught by Carissa Schively Slotterback in spring 2015. ; This project was completed as part of a year-long partnership between the City of Rosemount and the University of Minnesota’s Resilient Communities Project (http://www.rcp.umn.edu). As more extreme weather incidents have ravaged the United States in recent years, many local governments are taking a closer look at just how resilient their communities are to the changing global climate. The goal of this project was to create a climate adaptation plan aimed at strengthening resilience to climatic impacts on built, natural, economic, and social systems. In collaboration with city project lead Jason Lindahl, a planner for the City of Rosemount, a team of students in PA 5242: Environmental Planning, Policy, and Decision-Making analyzed data from the Minnesota Department of Health’s Vulnerability Assessment and case studies of two different regions in the United States and made recommendations for how the City of Rosemount can use a vulnerability assessment to inform activities that improve the City’s adaptability in the face of climate change. A final report and presentation from the project are available. ; This project was supported by the Resilient Communities Project (RCP), a program at the University of Minnesota that convenes the wide-ranging expertise of U of M faculty and students to address strategic local projects that advance community resilience and sustainability. RCP is a program of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA). More information at http://www.rcp.umn.edu

Experimental evidence is mounting for enhanced stability against pulsed heat loads in cable-in-conduit conductors brought about by transient pressure waves in helium. It has been suggested that this enhancement derives from improved heat transfer caused by pressure induced flow and from extra heat absorption capability due to the thermodynamic path followed by helium in the course of pressure rise and release. A basic conductor design is given to take advantage of these phenomena yet avoiding the difficulties encountered in the force-cooled conductor presently under development. The design is discussed in terms of manufacturability, performance, and applicability in large fusion magnets. A few small scale test conductors have been constructed. Preliminary test results on the performance of one of them is included. Possible variations offered by the flexibility of the basic design is also discussed.

This fact sheet describes how DOE's Data Center Energy Profiler (DC Pro) Software Tool Suite and other resources can help U.S. companies identify ways to improve the efficiency of their data centers.

The military is facing a significant issue of increasing fuel cost to deploy troops overseas and establish and maintain Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) or outposts. Liquid fuel is one of the primary energy source for these FOBs, which is a non-renewable source, flammable, and needs large convoys with specialized equipment to transport, therefore being both unsafe and expensive for the operation of FOBs. To help reduce energy consumption, transportation, and cost an Energy Resource Planning Tool (ERPT) is needed. This ERPT will help the military in making crucial decisions about the optimal shelter and equipment configuration for their Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) prior to deployment. To make this tool effective, load profile data of shelters needs to be simulated and uploaded into a database, so that it can be easily available when outposts need to be configured and optimized with respect to energy consumption for a given set of constraints. This research has developed a programmatic modeling framework to generate load profiles for shelters of interest for outposts for different weather profiles, equipment, occupancy, and other relevant parameters of interest, and upload data points into a database. The modeling framework is developed using the programming language Ruby and simulation platforms OpenStudio and EnergyPlus. In order to make sure the ERPT estimates reasonably accurate load profiles for a shelter through regression techniques, a large set of data points, on the order of around 500,000 data points, needs to be uploaded into the database. The database is named DEnCity and is established using Amazon Web Services (AWS). This research developed programmatic workflow to perform Sensitivity analyses along with Sampling and Uncertainty analyses to generate and upload the data points needed into the DEnCity database. It analyzes different Sensitivity and Uncertainty methods for creating and uploading data points. It compares these computational methods and discusses their pros and cons in context of the ...

Because of the magnitude of the existing corn harvest shortfall coupled with the large ethanol mandates, policymakers face extreme uncertainties looking into the future with potentially large economic ramifications. Precisely, because neither the economic modelers nor the decision makers can foretell all of the factors affecting corn harvests and ethanol use in 2013, a waiver is a wise course of action. To be sure, a waiver may have no effect and turn out to be irrelevant. Even so, we argue that it has no downside. But if an anemic harvest rebound occurs in 2013, a waiver could avoid substantial economic dislocations in 2013 and beyond. Regulators should opt for flexibility. ; Bush School of Government and Public Service

Item 856-E ; S/N 041-011-00054-8 ; "January 1981." ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Over the next seven years, at least 5,000 new schools will be designed and constructed to meet the needs of American students in kindergarten through grade 12. National efforts are underway to encourage the use of daylighting, energy efficiency, and renewable energy technologies in school designs, which can significantly enhance the learning environment. Recent rigorous statistical studies, involving 21,000 students in three states, reveal that students perform better in daylit classrooms and indicate the health benefits of daylighting. This paper discusses the evidence regarding daylighting and student performance and development, and presents four case studies of schools that have cost effectively implemented daylighting into their buildings.