A review of biomass co-firing in North America

Biomass fuels have long been accepted as useful renewable energy sources, especially in mitigating greenhouse gases (GHG), nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxide emissions. Biomass fuel is carbon neutral and is usually low in both nitrogen and sulfur. For the past decade, various forms of biomass fuels have been co-combusted in existing coal-fired boilers and gas-fired power plants. Biomass is used as a supplemental fuel to substitute for up to 10% of the base fuel in most full commercial operations. There are several successful co-firing projects in many parts of the world, particularly in Europe and North America. However, despite remarkable commercial success in Europe, most of the biomass co-firing in North America is limited to demonstration levels. This review takes a detailed look at several aspects of biomass co-firing with a direct focus on North America. It also explores the benefits, such as the reduction of GHG emissions and its implications. This paper shows the results of our studies of the biomass resources available in North America that can be used in coal-fired boilers, their availability and transportation to the power plant, available co-firing levels and technologies, and various technological and environmental issues associated with biomass co-firing. Finally, the paper proffers solutions to help utility companies explore biomass co-firing as a transitional option towards a completely carbon-free power sector in North America.

Northern Ireland, America and the Emerging Church Movement: Exploring the Significance of Peter Rollins andthe Ikon Collective

The Emerging Church Movement (ECM) is a primarily Western religious phenomenon, identifiable by its critical ‘deconstruction’ of ‘modern’ religion. While most prominent in North America, especially the United States, some of the most significant contributors to the ECM ‘conversation’ have been the Belfast-based Ikon Collective and one of its founders, philosopher Peter Rollins. Their rootedness in the unique religious, political and social landscape of Northern Ireland in part explains their position on the ‘margins’ of the ECM, and provides many of the resources for their contributions. Ikon’s development of ‘transformance art’ and its ‘leaderless’ structure raise questions about the institutional viability of the wider ECM. Rollins’ ‘Pyrotheology’ project, grounded in his reading of post-modern philosophy, introduces more radical ideas to the ECM conversation. Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ and ‘marginal’ location provides the ground from which Rollins and Ikon have been able to expose the boundaries of the ECM and raise questions about just how far the ECM may go in its efforts to transform Western Christianity.

Autism and ABA: Best Practice in America and the Way Forward for Europe.

According to recent estimates, 1 in each 68 new-borns will be diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the USA (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014), while 1 in every 29 children will be diagnosed with ASD in the UK (Dillenburger, Jordan, McKerr, & Keenan, 2015). Individuals diagnosed with ASD share a set of characteristics at varying levels of severity: impairments in social communication skills and presence of restricted interests and repetitive behaviours (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).Notwithstanding these figures, little effort has been placed in European countries’ policies for reaching an early diagnosis. This has a detrimental effect on future prognosis for children with ASD, since research has clearly shown that when evidence-based interventions are accessed early in life, they can lead to great improvements on the overall functioning of children with ASD, including significant gains in social communication and reduction of inappropriate behaviours (Dawson, Rogers, Munson, Smith, Winter, Greenson, Donaldson, & Varley, 2009).Additionally, when looking at the services available for children with ASD and their families in Europe, it seems that not much improvement has been made in the last decades. Traditional eclectic approaches and a wealth of non-scientific methods seem to be available and often recommended by public bodies, while state-funded evidence-based interventions are not offered as part of the education or health system. Given that there is a wealth of evidence on the effectiveness of interventions based on the science of ABA, it seems that specific action is required to correct the situation, respecting children’s right to effective treatment and inclusion.In the present paper, these issues are fully discussed and recommendations for best practice are offered.

A mid to late Holocene cryptotephra framework from eastern North America

Holocene cryptotephras of Alaskan and Pacific Northwestern origin have recently been detected ca. 7000 km away on the east coast of North America. This study extends the emerging North American tephrochronological framework by geochemically characterising seventeen cryptotephra layers from four newly explored peatlands. All detected tephras were deposited during the late Holocene, with no horizons present in the peat between ca. 3000–5000 years ago. The prevalence of the Alaskan White River Ash eastern lobe (AD 847 ± 1) is confirmed across the eastern seaboard from Newfoundland to Maine and a regional depositional pattern from Mount St Helens Set W (AD 1479–1482) is presented. The first occurrences of four additional cryptotephras in eastern North America are described, three of which may originate from source regions in Mexico, Kamchatka (Russia) and Hokkaido (Japan). The possibility of such tephras reaching eastern North America presents the opportunity to link palaeo-archives from the tropics and eastern Asia with those from the western Atlantic seaboard, aiding inter-regional comparisons of proxy-climatic records.