• Energy Research
• Closed Access close
• Restricted close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• 1. No poverty close
• University of California System close

AbstractThroughout much of the African continent, healthcare systems are already strained in their efforts to meet the needs of a growing population using limited resources. Climate change threatens to undermine many of the public health gains that have been made in this region in the last several decades via multiple mechanisms, including malnutrition secondary to drought‐induced food insecurity, mass human displacement from newly uninhabitable areas, exacerbation of environmentally sensitive chronic diseases, and enhanced viability of pathogenic microbes and their vectors. We reviewed the literature describing the various direct and indirect effects of climate change on diseases with cutaneous manifestations in Africa. We included non‐communicable diseases such as malignancies (non‐melanoma skin cancers), inflammatory dermatoses (i.e. photosensitive dermatoses, atopic dermatitis), and trauma (skin injury), as well as communicable diseases and neglected tropical diseases. Physicians should be aware of the ways in which climate change threatens human health in low‐ and middle‐income countries in general, and particularly in countries throughout Africa, the world's lowest‐income and second most populous continent.

The elderly and those with disabilities face greater increases in electricity bills and worse health outcomes under some time-of-use electricity rates. This suggests that vulnerable groups should be considered separately in time-of-use rate design, and future rate designs should be tested to ensure that they do not increase hardship.

Water heating represented nearly 13% of 2010 residential energy consumption making it an important target for energy conservation efforts. The objective of this work is to identify spatially-resolved strategies for energy conservation, since little analysis has been done to identify how regional characteristics affect the energy consumed for water heating. We present a first-order thermodynamic analysis, utilizing ab initio calculations and regression methods, to quantify primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions with regional specificity by considering by considering local electricity mixes, heat rates, solar radiation profiles, heating degrees days, and water heating unit sales for 27 regions of the US. Results suggest that shifting from electric towards natural gas or solar water heating offered primary energy and CO2 emission reductions in most US regions, but these reductions varied considerably according to regional electricity mix and solar resources. We find that regions that would benefit most from technology transitions, are often least likely to switch due to limited economic incentives. Our results suggest that federal energy factor metrics, which ignore upstream losses in power generation, are insufficient in informing consumers about the energy performance of residential end use appliances.

The Biomass Refining Consortium for Applied Fundamentals and Innovation, with members from Auburn University, Dartmouth College, Michigan State University, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, the University of British Columbia, and the University of California at Riverside, has developed comparative data on the conversion of corn stover to sugars by several leading pretreatment technologies. These technologies include ammonia fiber expansion pretreatment, ammonia recycle percolation pretreatment, dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment, flowthrough pretreatment (hot water or dilute acid), lime pretreatment, controlled pH hot water pretreatment, and sulfur dioxide steam explosion pretreatment. Over the course of two separate USDA- and DOE-funded projects, these pretreatment technologies were applied to two different corn stover batches, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of the remaining solids from each pretreatment technology using identical enzyme preparations, enzyme loadings, and enzymatic hydrolysis assays. Identical analytical methods and a consistent material balance methodology were employed to develop comparative sugar yield data for each pretreatment and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. Although there were differences in the profiles of sugar release, with the more acidic pretreatments releasing more xylose directly in the pretreatment step than the alkaline pretreatments, the overall glucose and xylose yields (monomers + oligomers) from combined pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis process steps were very similar for all of these leading pretreatment technologies. Some of the water-only and alkaline pretreatment technologies resulted in significant amounts of residual xylose oligomers still remaining after enzymatic hydrolysis that may require specialized enzyme preparations to fully convert xylose oligomers to monomers.

Interventions to reduce household air pollution (HAP) are key to reducing associated morbidity and mortality in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs); especially among pregnant women and young children. This systematic review aims to determine the effectiveness of interventions aimed to reduce HAP exposure associated with domestic solid biomass fuel combustion, compared to usual cooking practices, for improving health outcomes in pregnant women and children under five in LMIC settings. A systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken with searches undertaken in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, GIM, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Greenfile in August 2020. Inclusion criteria were experimental, non-experimental, or quasi-experimental studies investigating the impact of interventions to reduce HAP exposure and improve associated health outcomes among pregnant women or children under 5 years. Study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment using the Effective Public Health Practice Project tool were undertaken independently by two reviewers. Seventeen out of 7293 retrieved articles (seven pregnancy, nine child health outcome; 13 studies) met the inclusion criteria. These assessed improved cookstoves (ICS; n = 10 studies), ethanol stoves (n = 1 study), and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG; n = 2 studies) stoves interventions. Meta-analysis showed no significant effect of ICS interventions compared to traditional cooking for risk of preterm birth (n = 2 studies), small for gestational age (n = 2 studies), and incidence of acute respiratory infections (n = 6 studies). Although an observed increase in mean birthweight was observed, this was not statistically significant (n = 4). However, ICS interventions reduced the incidence of childhood burns (n = 3; observations = 41 723; Rate Ratio: 0.66 [95% CI: 0.45-0.96]; I2 : 46.7%) and risk of low birth weight (LBW; n = 4; observations = 3456; Odds Ratio: 0.73 [95% CI: 0.61-0.87]; I2 : 21.1%). Although few studies reported health outcomes, the data indicate that ICS interventions were associated with reduced risk of childhood burns and LBW. The data highlight the need for the development and implementation of robust, well-reported and monitored, community-driven intervention trials with longer-term participant follow-up.

Civil infrastructure systems are disturbed by natural or man-made hazards at an increasing frequency and severity. Among these systems, transportation systems are especially vulnerable due to their nature and are of significant importance to urban built environments as they maintain the mobility of urban dwellers and goods. Mobility disturbances are significant not only due to the direct losses associated but also due to the greater economic impacts driven by indirect losses stemming from the economic interactions of regions and sectors. Therefore, understanding the economic impacts of urban mobility disturbances is critical. To achieve a better understanding of the status quo of the research on transportation disturbances and economic impact analysis, a literature review was conducted. The review indicates that most of the articles fail to leverage realistic hazard impact information and explicit network modeling, consequently jeopardizing the credibility of the results. To begin addressing the gaps in the field, an interdisciplinary framework was designed to investigate the economic impacts of mobility disturbances. To validate the framework, a case study was conducted to estimate the economic impacts of commuting-based mobility disturbances resulting from a potential earthquake scenario in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The direct and indirect economic losses were estimated to be 285.49 and 93.48 million dollars, respectively. The results indicated that the economic losses could vary significantly among regions as well as industries. Among the five counties in the study region, Los Angeles County suffered the most. In addition, industries related to finance, education and scientific services, etc. were estimated to experience larger losses.

Has patent law provided adequate incentives for environmental innovation? This Article provides a narrative review that describes (1) clean and sustainable technological inventions and (2) various environmental innovation approaches involving patents in some form and incentivizing technological development and diffusion. Clean, sustainable, or green inventions that lower pollution, use resources in a more sustainable manner, recycle more of their wastes and products, or provide significant energy efficiency have garnered an incredible amount of attention. Scholars and other commentators have analysed the role of patents in facilitating technological development to mitigate climate change, including eco-patent commons, a fast track program, a patent rewards system, and a collaborative and cooperative platform. An analysis of the literature shows that patent law offers certain, though perhaps underutilized, opportunities to promote technological innovation that has environmental benefits.

This work proposes a multi-objective optimization model to design a sustainable multi-period second generation biomass-to-bioethanol supply chain under multiple uncertainties. The objective is to simultaneously maximize the economic, environmental, and social performance. The strategic decisions such as land allocation for switchgrass cultivation, biorefinery locations and capacities, and the biomass-to-bioethanol conversion pathway are determined for each planning period which are staggered across the entire planning horizon. The augmented e–constraint method is used to trade-off among the competing objectives and to obtain feasible solutions that achieve desired levels of sustainability. In order to solve the proposed stochastic optimization model efficiently and effectively, this work proposes a solution approach involving sequential application of a modified Sample Average Approximation method and Benders decomposition. A case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mathematical model and its impact on land usage and sustainability.

Cellulases from Streptomyces species can be used as auxiliary agents in the pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials, but little work has been done on this topic. Besides, Streptomyces strains have been identified from Cuatro Cienegas basin, but their potential in the treatment of agricultural wastes has not been demonstrated. In this work a Streptomyces sp., strain CC48 isolated from the oligotrophic environment, shows high levels of cellulolytic activity (0.76 U/ mL at pH 7.0, 60 °C) in minimum medium supplemented with carboxymethyl cellulose compared with other Streptomyces strains and isolates in a bacterial collection. At least three putative cellulases (~30, 40, and 45 kDa) were identified in Streptomyces sp. CC48 extracts. The addition of Mg2+ increased cellulase activity by 23%, whereas other cations resulted in decreased catalysis. Residual cellulolytic activities after 4 and 8 h of incubation at 60 °C were ~ 73 and 65%, respectively, and ~ 98% at 50 °C after 8 h. Corn cob and wheat straw pretreated with an alkaline method showed saccharification values of 320 and 330 mg/g of reducing sugars per gram of dry substrate, respectively. The significance of this work lies in the fact that data provided here show that Streptomyces sp. strain CC48 is capable of hydrolyzing both maize and wheat substrates, suggesting the potential of this bacterium to hydrolyze agricultural wastes. Also, Cuatro Cienegas Basin may represent a source for efficient cellulolytic microorganisms.