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Power Flow Control Solutions for a Modern Grid Using SMART Power Flow Controllers (IEEE Press Series on Power and Energy Systems)
by Kalyan K. Sen Mey Ling SenPower Flow Control Solutions for a Modern Grid using SMART Power Flow Controllers Provides students and practicing engineers with the foundation required to perform studies of power system networks and mitigate unique power flow problems Power Flow Control Solutions for a Modern Grid using SMART Power Flow Controllers is a clear and accessible introduction to power flow control in complex transmission systems. Starting with basic electrical engineering concepts and theory, the authors provide step-by-step explanations of the modeling techniques of various power flow controllers (PFCs), such as the voltage regulating transformer (VRT), the phase angle regulator (PAR), and the unified power flow controller (UPFC). The textbook covers the most up-to-date advancements in the Sen transformer (ST), including various forms of two-core designs and hybrid architectures for a wide variety of applications. Beginning with an overview of the origin and development of modern power flow controllers, the authors explain each topic in straightforward engineering terms—corroborating theory with relevant mathematics. Throughout the text, easy-to-understand chapters present characteristic equations of various power flow controllers, explain modeling in the Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP), compare transformer-based and mechanically-switched PFCs, discuss grid congestion and power flow limitations, and more. This comprehensive textbook: Describes why effective Power Flow Controllers should be viewed as impedance regulators Provides computer simulation codes of the various power flow controllers in the EMTP programming language Contains numerous worked examples and data cases to clarify complex issues Includes results from the simulation study of an actual network Features models based on the real-world experiences the authors, co-inventors of first-generation FACTS controllers Written by two acknowledged leaders in the field, Power Flow Control Solutions for a Modern Grid using SMART Power Flow Controllers is an ideal textbook for graduate students in electrical engineering, and a must-read for power engineering practitioners, regulators, and researchers.
Power from Pellets
by Stefan DöringThis book provides a practical description of the technology of pellet production on the basis of renewable sources as well as the utilization of pellets. The author explains what kinds of biomass are usable in addition to wood, how to produce pellets and how to use pellets to produce energy. Starting with the basics of combustion, gasification and the pelletizing process, several different technologies are described. The design, planning, construction and economic efficiency are discussed as well. The appendix gives useful advice about plant concepts, calculations, addresses, conversion tables and formulas.
Power GaN Devices
by Matteo Meneghini Gaudenzio Meneghesso Enrico ZanoniThis book presents the first comprehensive overview of the properties and fabrication methods of GaN-based power transistors, with contributions from the most active research groups in the field. It describes how gallium nitride has emerged as an excellent material for the fabrication of power transistors; thanks to the high energy gap, high breakdown field, and saturation velocity of GaN, these devices can reach breakdown voltages beyond the kV range, and very high switching frequencies, thus being suitable for application in power conversion systems. Based on GaN, switching-mode power converters with efficiency in excess of 99% have been already demonstrated, thus clearing the way for massive adoption of GaN transistors in the power conversion market. This is expected to have important advantages at both the environmental and economic level, since power conversion losses account for 10% of global electricity consumption. The first part of the book describes the properties and advantages of gallium nitride compared to conventional semiconductor materials. The second part of the book describes the techniques used for device fabrication, and the methods for GaN-on-Silicon mass production. Specific attention is paid to the three most advanced device structures: lateral transistors, vertical power devices, and nanowire-based HEMTs. Other relevant topics covered by the book are the strategies for normally-off operation, and the problems related to device reliability. The last chapter reviews the switching characteristics of GaN HEMTs based on a systems level approach. This book is a unique reference for people working in the material, device and power electronics fields; it provides interdisciplinary information on material growth, device fabrication, reliability issues and circuit-level switching investigation.
Power Grid Operation in a Market Environment: Economic Efficiency and Risk Mitigation
by Hong ChenCovers the latest practices, challenges and theoretical advancements in the domain of balancing economic efficiency and operation risk mitigation This book examines both system operation and market operation perspectives, focusing on the interaction between the two. It incorporates up-to-date field experiences, presents challenges, and summarizes the latest theoretic advancements to address those challenges. The book is divided into four parts. The first part deals with the fundamentals of integrated system and market operations, including market power mitigation, market efficiency evaluation, and the implications of operation practices in energy markets. The second part discusses developing technologies to strengthen the use of the grid in energy markets. System volatility and economic impact introduced by the intermittency of wind and solar generation are also addressed. The third part focuses on stochastic applications, exploring new approaches of handling uncertainty in Security Constrained Unit Commitment (SCUC) as well as the reserves needed for power system operation. The fourth part provides ongoing efforts of utilizing transmission facilities to improve market efficiency, via transmission topology control, transmission switching, transmission outage scheduling, and advanced transmission technologies. Besides the state-of-the-art review and discussion on the domain of balancing economic efficiency and operation risk mitigation, this book: Describes a new approach for mass market demand response management, and introduces new criteria to improve system performance with large scale variable generation additions Reviews mathematic models and solution methods of SCUC to help address challenges posed by increased operational uncertainties with high-penetration of renewable resources Presents a planning framework to account for the value of operational flexibility in transmission planning and to provide market mechanism for risk sharing Power Grid Operations in a Market Environment: Economic Efficiency and Risk Mitigation is a timely reference for power engineers and researchers, electricity market traders and analysts, and market designers.
Power Grid Resilience against Natural Disasters: Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (IEEE Press)
by Shunbo Lei Chong Wang Yunhe HouPOWER GRID RESILIENCE AGAINST NATURAL DISASTERS How to protect our power grids in the face of extreme weather events The field of structural and operational resilience of power systems, particularly against natural disasters, is of obvious importance in light of climate change and the accompanying increase in hurricanes, wildfires, tornados, frigid temperatures, and more. Addressing these vulnerabilities in service is a matter of increasing diligence for the electric power industry, and as such, targeted studies and advanced technologies are being developed to help address these issues generally—whether they be from the threat of cyber-attacks or of natural disasters. Power Grid Resilience against Natural Disasters provides, for the first time, a comprehensive and systematic introduction to resilience-enhancing planning and operation strategies of power grids against extreme events. It addresses, in detail, the three necessary steps to ensure power grid success: the preparedness prior to natural disasters, the response as natural disasters unfold, and the recovery after the event. Crucially, the authors put forward state-of-the-art methods towards improving today’s practices in managing these three arenas. Power Grid Resilience against Natural Disasters readers will also find: Data, tables, and illustrations to supplement and clarify the points put forward in each chapter Case studies on realistic power systems and industry standards and practices related to the topics covered Potential to be a supplementary text in advanced level power engineering courses Power Grid Resilience against Natural Disasters will be of interest to specialists and engineers, as well as planners and operators from industry. It can also be a useful resource for senior undergraduate students, postgraduate students, researchers, and research libraries. More, it will appeal to all readers with a strong background in power system analysis, operation and control, optimization methods, the Markov decision process, and probability and statistics.
Power in Conservation: Environmental Anthropology Beyond Political Ecology (Routledge Studies in Conservation and the Environment)
by Carol CarpenterThis book examines theories and ethnographies related to the anthropology of power in conservation. Conservation thought and practice is power laden—conservation thought is powerfully shaped by the history of ideas of nature and its relation to people, and conservation interventions govern and affect peoples and ecologies. This book argues that being able to think deeply, particularly about power, improves conservation policy-making and practice. Political ecology is by far the most well-known and well-published approach to thinking about power in conservation. This book analyzes the relatively neglected but robust anthropology of conservation literature on politics and power outside political ecology, especially literature rooted in Foucault. It is intended to make four of Foucault’s concepts of power accessible, concepts that are most used in the anthropology of conservation: the power of discourses, discipline and governmentality, subject formation, and neoliberal governmentality. The important ethnographic literature that these concepts have stimulated is also examined. Together, theory and ethnography underpin our emerging understanding of a new, Anthropocene-shaped world. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of conservation, environmental anthropology, and political ecology, as well as conservation practitioners and policy-makers.
Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics
by Talithia WilliamsFrom rocket scientists to code breakers, “fascinating stories” of women who overcame obstacles, shattered stereotypes, and pursued their passion for math (Notices of the American Mathematical Society).With more than 200 photos and original interviews with several of the amazing women covered, Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics is a full-color volume that puts a spotlight on the influence of women on the development of mathematics over the last two millennia. Each biography reveals the life of a different female mathematician, from her childhood and early influences to the challenges she faced and the great achievements she made in spite of them. Learn how:After her father terminated her math lessons, Sofia Kovalevskaya snuck algebra books into her bed to read at nightEmmy Noether became an invaluable resource to Albert Einstein while she was in the NavyNative American rocket scientist Mary Golda Ross developed designs for fighter jets and missiles in a top-secret unitKatherine Johnson’s life-or-death calculations at NASA meant that astronauts such as Alan Shepard and John Glenn made it home aliveShakuntala Devi multiplied massive numbers in her head so her family could eat at nightPamela Harris proved her school counselors wrong when they told her she would only succeed as a bilinguial secretaryCarla Cotwright-Williams began her life in the dangerous streets of South-Central Los Angeles before skyrocketing to a powerful career with the Department of Defense in Washington, DCThese women are a diverse group, but their stories have one thing in common: At some point on their journeys, someone believed in them—and made them think the impossible was perhaps not so impossible.“A quick read . . . full of dramatic stories and eye-catching illustrations.” —MAA Reviews“I found myself marveling at the personal anecdotes and quotes throughout the book.” —Notices of the American Mathematical Society
Power in the Wild: The Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Ways Animals Strive for Control over Others
by Lee Alan DugatkinFrom the shell wars of hermit crabs to little blue penguins spying on potential rivals, power struggles in the animal kingdom are as diverse as they are fascinating, and this book illuminates their surprising range and connections. The quest for power in animals is so much richer, so much more nuanced than who wins what knock-down, drag-out fight. Indeed, power struggles among animals often look more like an opera than a boxing match. Tracing the path to power for over thirty different species on six continents, writer and behavioral ecologist Lee Alan Dugatkin takes us on a journey around the globe, shepherded by leading researchers who have discovered that in everything from hyenas to dolphins, bonobos to field mice, cichlid fish to cuttlefish, copperhead snakes to ravens, and meerkats to mongooses, power revolves around spying, deception, manipulation, forming and breaking up alliances, complex assessments of potential opponents, building social networks, and more. Power pervades every aspect of the social life of animals: what they eat, where they eat, where they live, whom they mate with, how many offspring they produce, whom they join forces with, and whom they work to depose. In some species, power can even change an animal’s sex. Nor are humans invulnerable to this magnificently intricate melodrama: Dugatkin’s tales of the researchers studying power in animals are full of unexpected pitfalls, twists and turns, serendipity, and the pure joy of scientific discovery.
Power Integrity for Electrical and Computer Engineers
by J. Ted Dibene II David HockansonA professional guide to the fundamentals of power integrity analysis with an emphasis on silicon level power integrity Power Integrity for Electrical and Computer Engineers embraces the most recent changes in the field, offers a comprehensive introduction to the discipline of power integrity, and provides an overview of the fundamental principles. Written by noted experts on the topic, the book goes beyond most other resources to focus on the detailed aspects of silicon and optimization techniques in order to broaden the field of study. This important book offers coverage of a wide range of topics including signal analysis, EM concepts for PI, frequency domain analysis for PI, numerical methods (overview) for PI, and silicon device PI modeling. Power Integrity for Electrical and Computer Engineers examine platform technologies, system considerations, power conversion, system level modeling, and optimization methodologies. To reinforce the material presented, the authors include example problems. This important book: • Includes coverage on convergence, accuracy, and error analysis and explains how these can be used to analyze power integrity problems • Contains information for modeling the power converter from the PDN to the load in a full system level model • Explores areas of device level modeling of silicon as related to power integrity • Contains example word problems that are related to an individual chapter’s subject Written for electrical and computer engineers and academics, Power Integrity for Electrical and Computer Engineers is an authoritative guide to the fundamentals of power integrity and explores the topics of power integrity analysis, power integrity analytics, silicon level power integrity, and optimization techniques.
Power Magnetic Devices: A Multi-Objective Design Approach (IEEE Press Series on Power Engineering)
by Scott D. SudhoffPresents a multi-objective design approach to the many power magnetic devices in use today Power Magnetic Devices: A Multi-Objective Design Approach addresses the design of power magnetic devices—including inductors, transformers, electromagnets, and rotating electric machinery—using a structured design approach based on formal single- and multi-objective optimization. The book opens with a discussion of evolutionary-computing-based optimization. Magnetic analysis techniques useful to the design of all the devices considered in the book are then set forth. This material is then used for inductor design so readers can start the design process. Core loss is next considered; this material is used to support transformer design. A chapter on force and torque production feeds into a chapter on electromagnet design. This is followed by chapters on rotating machinery and the design of a permanent magnet AC machine. Finally, enhancements to the design process including thermal analysis and AC conductor losses due to skin and proximity effects are set forth. Power Magnetic Devices: Focuses on the design process as it relates to power magnetic devices such as inductors, transformers, electromagnets, and rotating machinery Offers a structured design approach based on single- and multi-objective optimization Helps experienced designers take advantage of new techniques which can yield superior designs with less engineering time Provides numerous case studies throughout the book to facilitate readers’ comprehension of the analysis and design process Includes Powerpoint-slide-based student and instructor lecture notes and MATLAB-based examples, toolboxes, and design codes Designed to support the educational needs of students, Power Magnetic Devices: A Multi-Objective Design Approach also serves as a valuable reference tool for practicing engineers and designers. MATLAB examples are available via the book support site.
The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America
by Maury KleinIN 1800 AMERICA WAS AN AGRARIAN NATION, whose wealth came largely from the land and was extracted only with backbreaking toil. A century later, the country was an industrial superpower and the most advanced material society the world had ever seen. The Power Makers is the story of that transformation and of the dynamic, fiercely competitive men who made it happen. The steam engine, the incandescent lamp, the electric motor-inventions such as these replaced muscle power with machine labor, turned darkness to light, and reshaped every aspect of daily life in the span of a few generations. They were the product of an extraordinary cast of characters: dogged inventors like James Watt and Elihu Thomson; charismatic entrepreneurs like George Westinghouse; daring capitalists like Charles Coffin of General Electric and J. P. Morgan. Others include Samuel Insull, onetime assistant to Thomas Edison, who invented the modern utility business and brought power to millions, and Nikola Tesla, the eccentric Serbian immigrant whose revolutionary AC motor came to him in a vision. Striding among them like a colossus is the figure of Edison, who was creative genius and business visionary at once. With consummate skill, Maury Klein recreates their discoveries, their stunning triumphs and frequent failures, and their unceasing, bare-knuckled battles in the marketplace. Their personalities, and their fierce rivalries, leap off the page. The Power Makers is a saga of inspired invention, undaunted persistence, and business competition at its most naked and cutthroat- a dazzling tale of America in its most astonishing decades.
Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future
by Vince BeiserThe powerful ways the metals we need to fuel technology and energy are spawning environmental havoc, political upheaval, and rising violence — and how we can do better.An Australian millionaire&’s plan to mine the ocean floor. Nigerian garbage pickers risking their lives to salvage e-waste. A Bill Gates-backed entrepreneur harnessing AI to find metals in the Arctic. These people and millions more are part of the intensifying competition to find and extract the minerals essential for two crucial technologies: the internet and renewable energy. In Power Metal, Vince Beiser explores the Achilles&’ heel of &“green power&” and digital technology – that manufacturing computers, cell phones, electric cars, and other technologies demand skyrocketing amounts of lithium, copper, cobalt, and other materials. Around the world, businesses and governments are scrambling for new places and new ways to get those metals, at enormous cost to people and the planet. Beiser crisscrossed the world to talk to the people involved and report on the damage this race is inflicting, the ways it could get worse, and how we can minimize the damage. Power Metal is a compelling glimpse into this disturbing yet potentially promising new world.
Power, National Security, and Transformational Global Events: Challenges Confronting America, China, and Iran
by Thomas A. JohnsonAs the United States struggled to survive the recent recession, China quietly acquired a vast amount of U.S. Treasury bills and bonds. With China now holding so much of America‘s debt, currency valuation issues have already caused tensions between the two superpowers. Couple this with Iran‘s efforts to develop into a nuclear power in an area that l
The Power of Click Chemistry for Molecular Machines and Surface Patterning
by Jason M. SpruellThe union of covalent and noncovalent chemistries manifested in the mechanical bond represents one of the great chemical triumphs of the last half century. However, until recently, the preparation of mechanically interlocked compounds has often been an inefficient and limiting process. This thesis provides a detailed account of the great strides taken to increase the synthetic accessibility of donor-acceptor mechanically interlocked molecules by the application of highly efficient and ultra mild chemical transformations during their template-directed synthesis. These new departures in synthesis have indeed played a transformative role in that more complex, higher-order, and functional architectures - once only a dream - are now comfortably within reach. Specifically, the formation of mechanical bonds in higher order rotaxanes and catenanes has become ever easier through the use of highly efficient click chemistries. The resulting mechanically interlocked compounds are functional molecular media for a host of applications including information storage, mechanical actuation, and drug release.
The Power of Eight: Harnessing the Miraculous Energies of a Small Group to Heal Others, Your Life, and the World
by Lynne MctaggartDiscover how to tap into your extraordinary human capacity for connection and healing, using astonishing new findings about the miraculous power of group intention and its boomerang effect, in this new book by the author of the international bestsellers The Intention Experiment and The Field. What we send out into the universe comes back to us, magnified. Although the power of intention—the energy of positive thoughts—is widely accepted as an influential force in transforming lives, the exponential power of group intention has never been explored, until now. In The Power of Eight, Lynne McTaggart, an expert on the science of spirituality, reveals her remarkable findings from ten years of experiments about how group intention can heal our lives—and change the world for the better. When individuals in a group focus their intention together on a single target, a powerful collective dynamic emerges that can heal longstanding conditions, mend fractured relationships, lower violence, and even rekindle life purpose. But the greatest untold truth of all is that group intention has a mirror effect, not only affecting the recipient but also reflecting back on the senders. Drawing on hundreds of case studies, the latest brain research, and dozens of McTaggart’s own university studies, The Power of Eight provides solid evidence showing that there is such a thing as a collective consciousness. Now you can learn to use it and unleash the power you hold inside of you to heal your own life, with help from this riveting, highly accessible new book. And you can join a series of worldwide Intention Experiments that will run on a major web television channel in 120 countries during the book’s initial publication and afterward.
The Power of Existing Buildings: Save Money, Improve Health, and Reduce Environmental Impacts
by Robert Sroufe Jr Craig Stevenson Beth EckenrodeYour building has the potential to change the world. Existing buildings consume approximately 40 percent of the energy and emit nearly half of the carbon dioxide in the US each year. In recognition of the significant contribution of buildings to climate change, the idea of building green has become increasingly popular. But is it enough? If an energy-efficient building is new construction, it may take 10 to 80 years to overcome the climate change impacts of the building process. New buildings are sexy, but few realize the value in existing buildings and how easy it is to get to "zero energy&” or low-energy consumption through deep energy retrofits. Existing buildings can and should be retrofit to reduce environmental impacts that contribute to climate change, while improving human health and productivity for building occupants. In The Power of Existing Buildings, academic sustainability expert Robert Sroufe, and construction and building experts Craig Stevenson and Beth Eckenrode, explain how to realize the potential of existing buildings and make them perform like new. This step-by-step guide will help readers to: understand where to start a project; develop financial models and realize costs savings; assemble an expert team; and align goals with numerous sustainability programs. The Power of Existing Buildings will challenge you to rethink spaces where people work and play, while determining how existing buildings can save the world. The insights and practical experience of Sroufe, Stevenson, and Eckenrode, along with the project case study examples, provide new insights on investing in existing buildings for building owners, engineers, occupants, architects, and real estate and construction professionals. The Power of Existing Buildings helps decision-makers move beyond incremental changes to holistic, results-oriented solutions.
The Power of Geometric Algebra Computing: For Engineering and Quantum Computing
by Dietmar HildenbrandGeometric Algebra is a very powerful mathematical system for an easy and intuitive treatment of geometry, but the community working with it is still very small. The main goal of this book is to close this gap from a computing perspective in presenting the power of Geometric Algebra Computing for engineering applications and quantum computing. The Power of Geometric Algebra Computing is based on GAALOPWeb, a new user-friendly, web-based tool for the generation of optimized code for different programming languages as well as for the visualization of Geometric Algebra algorithms for a wide range of engineering applications. Key Features: Introduces a new web-based optimizer for Geometric Algebra algorithms Supports many programming languages as well as hardware Covers the advantages of high-dimensional algebras Includes geometrically intuitive support of quantum computing This book includes applications from the fields of computer graphics, robotics and quantum computing and will help students, engineers and researchers interested in really computing with Geometric Algebra.
The Power of Neurodiversity: Unleashing the Advantages of Your Differently Wired Brain (published in hardcover as Neurodiversity)
by Thomas ArmstrongOC Parents, teachers, and policymakers should all read this thought-provoking book. I loved it. OCOOCoTemple Grandin, author of "Thinking in Pictures "
The Power of Placebos: How The Science Of Placebos And Nocebos Can Improve Health Care
by Jeremy Howick
The Power of Plagues (ASM Books)
by Irwin ShermanThe Power of Plagues presents a rogues' gallery of epidemic- causing microorganisms placed in the context of world history. Author Irwin W. Sherman introduces the microbes that caused these epidemics and the people who sought (and still seek) to understand how diseases and epidemics are managed. What makes this book especially fascinating are the many threads that Sherman weaves together as he explains how plagues past and present have shaped the outcome of wars and altered the course of medicine, religion, education, feudalism, and science. Cholera gave birth to the field of epidemiology. The bubonic plague epidemic that began in 1346 led to the formation of universities in cities far from the major centers of learning (and hot spots of the Black Death) at that time. And the Anopheles mosquito and malaria aided General George Washington during the American Revolution. Sadly, when microbes have inflicted death and suffering, people have sometimes responded by invoking discrimination, scapegoating, and quarantine, often unfairly, against races or classes of people presumed to be the cause of the epidemic. Pathogens are not the only stars of this book. Many scientists and physicians who toiled to understand, treat, and prevent these plagues are also featured. Sherman tells engaging tales of the development of vaccines, anesthesia, antiseptics, and antibiotics. This arsenal has dramatically reduced the suffering and death caused by infectious diseases, but these plague protectors are imperfect, due to their side effects or attenuation and because microbes almost invariably develop resistance to antimicrobial drugs. The Power of Plagues provides a sobering reminder that plagues are not a thing of the past. Along with the persistence of tuberculosis, malaria, river blindness, and AIDS, emerging and remerging epidemics continue to confound global and national public health efforts. West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and Ebola and Zika viruses are just some of the newest rogues to plague humans. The argument that civilization has been shaped to a significant degree by the power of plagues is compelling, and The Power of Plagues makes the case in an engaging and informative way that will be satisfying to scientists and non-scientists alike.
Power of Position: Classification and the Biodiversity Sciences (History and Foundations of Information Science)
by Robert D. MontoyaHow biodiversity classification, with its ranking of species, has social and political implications as well as implications for the field of information studies. The idea that species live in nature as pure and clear-cut named individuals is a fiction, as scientists well know. According to Robert D. Montoya, classifications are powerful mechanisms and we must better attend to the machinations of power inherent in them, as well as to how the effects of this power proliferate beyond the boundaries of their original intent. We must acknowledge the many ways our classifications are implicated in environmental, ecological, and social justice work—and information specialists must play a role in updating our notions of what it means to classify. In Power of Position, Montoya shows how classifications are systems that relate one entity with other entities, requiring those who construct a system to value an entity&’s relative importance—by way of its position—within a system of other entities. These practices, says Montoya, are important ways of constituting and exerting power. Classification also has very real-world consequences. An animal classified as protected and endangered, for example, is protected by law. Montoya also discusses the Catalogue of Life, a new kind of composite classification that reconciles many local (&“traditional&”) taxonomies, forming a unified taxonomic backbone structure for organizing biological data. Finally, he shows how the theories of information studies are applicable to realms far beyond those of biological classification.
The Power of Prions: The Strange and Essential Proteins That Can Cause Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Other Diseases
by Michel BrahicThe remarkable family of proteins that can make us very ill—but can also be linked to long-term memory, immunity, and the origin of lifeOver the last decade, scientists have discovered the importance and widespread presence in the body of a remarkable family of proteins known as prion proteins. Research links various types of prion proteins to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson&’s and Alzheimer&’s—and this has fueled the search for new drugs that could halt the progression of these terrible disorders. Other discoveries have revealed the essential roles prion proteins play in memory and immunity, and—in an extraordinary finding—the part they may have played in the beginnings of life on our planet. In this engaging and accessible book, Michel Brahic tells the story of these amazing and versatile proteins.Brahic, a leading researcher on diseases of the central nervous system, first describes the discovery of prions and their role in infection, beginning with early work on the animal disease scrapie and a mysterious human illness in New Guinea, apparently transmitted by cannibalism. Prions were eventually identified and named by Stanley Prusiner in the 1980s. (Brahic tells us Prusiner&’s alternate name for prion was &“piaf.&”) Prion proteins were then revealed as the cause of other illnesses, from &“mad cow&” disease and its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, to such noninfectious brain disorders as Parkinson&’s and Alzheimer&’s. While the prion proteins responsible for diseases are definitively &“bad,&” Brahic also explains that these abnormal prions are rare exceptions. Most of the time, prion proteins actually serve &“good&” and vital functions—and they may even have been present at the origin of life itself.
The Power of Red (Fountas & Pinnell LLI Purple #Level W)
by Sarah BrockettAn Unlikely Treasure. One of the world's greatest treasures of all time might surprise you. Adventurers traveled around the world to find it, and it led people to start a New World in the Americas. It wasn't gold, jewels, or clothes. It was the color red.
The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States
by National Academy of Engineering Chiniese Academy of Sciences Chiniese Academy of Engineering National Research Council of the National AcademiesThe United States and China are the world's top two energy consumers and, as of 2010, the two largest economies. Consequently, they have a decisive role to play in the world's clean energy future. Both countries are also motivated by related goals, namely diversified energy portfolios, job creation, energy security, and pollution reduction, making renewable energy development an important strategy with wide-ranging implications. Given the size of their energy markets, any substantial progress the two countries make in advancing use of renewable energy will provide global benefits, in terms of enhanced technological understanding, reduced costs through expanded deployment, and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to conventional generation from fossil fuels. Within this context, the U.S. National Academies, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), reviewed renewable energy development and deployment in the two countries, to highlight prospects for collaboration across the research to deployment chain and to suggest strategies which would promote more rapid and economical attainment of renewable energy goals. Main findings and concerning renewable resource assessments, technology development, environmental impacts, market infrastructure, among others, are presented. Specific recommendations have been limited to those judged to be most likely to accelerate the pace of deployment, increase cost-competitiveness, or shape the future market for renewable energy. The recommendations presented here are also pragmatic and achievable.