This is the second in a multi-part series

We are continuing on our integrated pest management journey this week with a discussion of mechanical and biological controls for home landscapes.

Mechanical control is the simple act of physically removing the problem from your landscape with the use of tools such as mowers, shovels, or your own two hands.

If you have limited mobility, there are many ergonomically designed tools available that will help make weed removal very easy.

Mechanical control is certainly more labor intensive than using herbicides; however, repeatedly hand-pulling weeds will often stress them to the point that they will no longer grow, or will get out-competed by other desirable plants.

For weed control in landscape beds, cardboard is an excellent, low-cost option you can put down before you mulch an area. It also has the added benefit of being compostable and can be laid each time you re-mulch landscape or vegetable beds.

I do get questions about landscape fabrics, and I would recommend avoiding those if at all possible for long-term weed control.

A main drawback for fabrics or plastic mulches is that they only block annual weed seeds already present in the soil; they do a poor job at controlling perennial weeds and, assuming you add some type of mulch or compost over the fabric, new annual weed seeds will have a perfect environment on which to grow in just a years time.

A better option is to apply a 2-3 inch layer of mulch, which, in addition to cardboard, provides an excellent, biodegradable weed control option each year.

Coarse bark mulches are well-suited for weed control and, fun fact, hardwood mulches can help adjust soil pH slowly over time, which can be immensely helpful as we deal with our acidic mountain soils.

Destruction of old plant materials is a great form of mechanical control in vegetable or annual beds. By destroying left over plant materials, you will reduce the amount of habitat that pest insects like to lay their eggs in.

Tillage can be a great form of control for soil-dwelling insects like Japanese beetle grubs, as well as weed seeds. Exposing these pests to the soil surface will provide a bounty of food for many songbirds and other beneficial insects.

Remember too that cultural practices like crop rotation or cover crops can be used in conjunction with your mechanical controls and will provide even better control over weeds and insect pests.

Your yard is alive and teeming with an abundance of beneficial insects, many of which are predators or parasites of insect pests, and all of which rely on nectar and pollen as a part of their diet.

Providing a diversity of plants that flower at different times of the year is a great way to ensure that you have a sustainable population of beneficial insects each year. Insects like insidious flower bugs, big-eyed bugs, assassin bugs, and tiger beetles are just several of the beneficial insects you might find patrolling your garden throughout the season.

When selecting plants for pollinators, consider ones like cardinal flower, goldenrod, coneflower, joe-pye weed, crimson clover, and bee balm. These plants provide attractive additions to the landscape, but also serve as a year-round habitat for beneficial insects.

Thinking about what you want, doing some research ahead of time, and selecting plants more purposefully will give you a leg up in managing pests. Remember that you will have a greater population of beneficial insects if you choose perennial plants and plant in areas that receive little disturbance over time.

So far, we have discussed cultural, mechanical, and biological control options for pest management in home landscapes. By now, you can start to envision the type of system whereby you are using a variety of options to become more proactive about pest management.

Next time, I will cover chemical controls, including organic and traditional options for pest management.

To learn more about IPM, visit http://haywood.ces.ncsu.edu, where you can post your questions via the Ask an Expert link, or contact the Haywood County Extension office. For more information on home gardening in general, visit extensiongardener.ces.ncsu.edu.

Sam Marshall is the horticulture agent for the Haywood County Cooperative Extension Service.

Read the rest here:
Learn to Grow: Try these ideas to manage garden pests - The Mountaineer

As devastating as the human toll of the COVID-19 pandemic has been, it also has created myriad disruptions to life as we knew it, from remembering to bring a mask to keeping us cooped up at home with our families.

And, for many, with rats and mice.

The increase in rodent activity has been going on for a while, said pest-control experts, but the food supply has changed since Connecticut went into lockdown in March. No longer able to dine at the dumpster behind their favorite restaurants, the experts said, rats have been on the move, away from the closed businesses downtown and in the suburban shopping plazas and to the garbage cans behind our homes.

And we, tossing out more garbage because we're working and eating at home more often, are their new suppliers, experts say.

However, the changes wrought by COVID have only highlighted what has been occurring over the last few years: an explosion in wildlife populations generally, especially of rodents.

"It's absolutely mindboggling. This year is unprecedented. I've never seen anything like it," said Rocco Cambareri, co-owner with his wife, Jane, of Insecta X in Norwalk.

Normally, calls for rats and mice increase in late fall and winter, when the rodents are looking for warm places to hide out and any opening in your foundation is going to attract an intruder.

"Rats are rats. It's not like they hibernate," Cambareri said. "But you see more of them in the fall and winter because they need warmth."

But the increased rat sightings this spring and summer may have two COVID-related causes: less business at restaurants and more people noticing the rodents because they're at home more.

"There's a lot of restaurants where I live and it's right smack in the residential area," said Cambareri, who lives in Fairfield. "Then the residents are seeing more activity in their own yards."

Rodents have been moving "from the garbage dumpsters to the garbage cans in the residence," he said.

"I haven't been inundated with phone calls about rats," Cambareri said. "But I know for a fact that there's rats running around because of COVID."

To make sure they're not running around your house, he advised not leaving pet food or water outside -- rats need fluids -- be sure garbage cans are closed tightly and "look around your foundation. If you see a hole, get it patched up," he said. Garage doors, especially the rubber strip at the bottom, are also potential entryways. "A rat can chew through metal if it wants to. It can chew through concrete if it wants to," Cambareri said.

Mike Lipsett, owner of Connecticut Pest Elimination in Orange, said "the rodent population in Connecticut and here in New England has gone through the roof" for as much as the last seven or eight years.

"I have never ever seen the amount of rodent activity that we have right now," he said. "Fifty percent of the calls to our office right now is rodents, rodents, rodents."

Lipsett said people may be noticing more rats and mice simply because they're home more during the pandemic.

"Is it possible that there could be more rat or rodent calls because the average household has more trash because they're home and not going out? That's a possibility," he said.

Lipsett's message is: Be proactive to prevent pests from getting into your house in the first place.

"If you can control the perimeter you're going to reduce or eliminate what can get in there," he said. Bait boxes firmly anchored to the ground or heavily weighted are best to catch rats, he said. Bird feeders should be removed and overgrowth should be cleared, he said.

"If you don't bring the food source close it may help you in the long run," he said.

John Neary, owner of J. Neary Pest Control in Monroe, said he's had more calls for mice than for rats, but that "one of the theories" for the increase in rodent activity "is that because we're home more we're not going out to eat, there's more trash."

"The cleaner you can be, the faster you get rid of your waste, the better off you're going to be," he said.

John Curley, technical services manager for Precision Pest Control in Fairfield, also believes COVID-19 has changed the behavior of rats and other rodents.

"Our theory is because all these commercial properties are closed, offices are closed, restaurants are closed, we've definitely seen a higher-than-usual amount of residential ... mouse and rat activity," he said.

His company extends into lower Fairfield and Westchester counties.

Other reasons for the increases: "People being home more. They're also leaving doors open," Curley said. "They're producing more residential garbage, debris." Barbecue grills left uncleaned don't help, either.

"Residentially we are busier than we normally would be," he said.

Follow this link:
Experts: Connecticut has more rats; pandemic conditions send them to homes - theday.com

Ramesh Arora

PESTICIDES are toxic chemicals applied to crops for killing insect pests, plant pathogens and weeds. Less than one per cent of the more than one million identified species of insects are pests. Rather, a large number of insect species provide essential ecosystem services as plant pollinators, nutrient recyclers, trash burners, natural enemies of pests, and act as food for birds, fishes, amphibians, reptiles and small mammals, as components of food chains and food webs. Without these services, agriculture, forests and even human civilisation as a whole will notsurvive for long. Therefore, the pesticides need to be applied with utmost caution to minimise their adverse impact on humans, non-target organisms and the environment.

Rachel Carson, in her monumental book Silent Spring (1962), effectively focused the attention of the public, scientists and policy-makers on the consequences of the indiscriminate use of pesticides and prompted governments around the world to start regulating the use of pesticides.

In India, the Insecticides Act, 1968, regulates the manufacture, import, sale, and use of pesticides. Under the Act, the Government of India has over the years banned the production and use of 40 pesticides. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare constituted an expert committee headed by Anupam Varma in 2013 to review the use of 66 pesticides, which were already banned or restricted in other countries. Based on the committees recommendations, followed by the regulators decision and its own decision on the subject, the ministry issued a draft order on May 14, 2020, banning 27 pesticides in the country. Stakeholders were given 45 days (later extended by another 45 days) to file their response to the draft order.

In view of the order, state agricultural universities (SAUs) are making efforts to replace the banned items with alternative pesticides in their recommendations for the farmers. This is not a desirable approach to integrated pest management (IPM). In Europe, when many chemical pesticides were banned by the European Food Safety Authority, most of these were replaced by the release of natural enemies for biological control of pests. In India also, there is a need to replace the banned chemical pesticides with non-chemical tactics, especially pest-resistant genotypes, cultural control practices and biological control, and shift crop protection steadily towards bio-intensive approaches. Ecosystem biodiversity in the form of inter-crops, trap crops, and plants in adjoining fields/non-cropped areas would help to keep populations of most pests at the sub-economic level. About 350 species of natural enemies (predators, entomopathogens) are commercially produced and utilised in crop management around the world. In India, only about a dozen such species are being mass-multiplied.

There is unlikely to be an adverse impact of the banning of 27 pesticides on agricultural production because safer alternatives are available in the market. But agricultural universities need to be more stringent while recommending new pesticides for crop protection. Data on the impact of new chemicals on all non-target organisms, especially pollinators, natural enemies, secondary pests and microbiota, must be generated for informed decisions on new recommendations.

In Punjab, the only significant challenge to replacing the banned pesticides appears to be herbicide pendimethalin, which is widely used as a pre-emergence treatment in direct-seeded rice and other crops. The cultural method of stale seed bed is useful and needs to be popularised among farmers as a component of integrated weed management (IWM). It helps to significantly lower the weed density in the field.

The banning of the 27 pesticides presents a golden opportunity to agricultural universities, state departments of agriculture and the farming community to take the big leap required towards bio-intensive IPM for environmentally safe crop protection. This can be a win-win situation for farmers and consumers, besides the environment.

The writer retired as SeniorEntomologist, PAU, Ludhiana

Originally posted here:
Lets do it the eco-friendly way - The Tribune India

Emerald ash borer has been confirmed again in Nebraska.

Confirmation doesnt necessarily mean treatments are in your near future. Find out what treatments entail and what makes trees good candidates for those treatments.

A quick review of what Emerald Ash Borer is and what it does:

Emerald ash borer is an invasive beetle that attacks and kills all species of ash (Fraxinus spp). It is a small, metallic-green beetle about 1/2 inch long. The larvae of this wood-boring insect tunnel under the bark of ash trees, disrupting the flow of water and nutrients, ultimately causing the tree to die.

EAB-infested ash trees will exhibit thinning or dying branches in the top of the tree, S-shaped larval galleries under bark, D-shaped exit holes and suckers or advantageous growth along the trunk and main branches. Trees can be preventively treated or removed prior to infection.

If treatments are selected, they need to be made at the right time, to the right tree, and the right proximity to your location. Once EAB has been confirmed within the 15-mile radius of your location, then you can begin the proper treatment applications on healthy trees.

Treatments are not always recommended for all trees; they must be good candidates for treatment. A tree that isnt a good candidate for treatment is one with a stem girdling root, a tree without a trunk flare, trunk damage or missing bark on the trunk, a tree with more than 50% canopy decline, trees with obvious signs of internal rot (holes with soft or squishy rotted wood) or trees with fungi growing directly out of the trunk (another sign of internal rot).

Read the rest here:
Emerald ash borer back to infest trees in the state - Grand Island Independent

Biocontrol products must be used at the right stage of development in a pest and/or disease life cycle to maximize efficacy. Photo courtesy of Koppert Biological Systems

Biocontrol application mistakes add up in terms of lost time and money, not to mention crop losses due to ineffective control of the targeted pest. Many biocontrol products work great when used in accordance with the manufacturers direction. But when applied incorrectly, compromised efficacy and inadequate coverage can occur.

Here are three mistakes to avoid when applying your biocontrols.

1. Rigging Up Your Own DeviceThe equipment you choose to apply your biocontrols is critical to your success. Beware if you have plans to put your own dispersal system together. You may harm or stress the insects you are trying to disperse, compromising their performance.

Although growers are very creative in rigging up their own systems, they often skip the step of making sure that the insects are not compromised in the process, says Danny El-Aaidi, Sales Manager for Koppert Biological Systems. This is especially relevant when any type of force, suction, or pressure is used to disperse the biocontrol. Rig up your own dispersal system, and you run the risk of harming the insects youre trying to disperse. In addition, certain insects are just more sensitive than others, and you need to know which ones fall into that category.

2. Timing Your Applications WrongTiming is everything. Biocontrol products must be used at the right stage of development in a pest and/or disease life cycle and during the right environmental conditions in the field to maximize efficacy.

Many biocontrol products are live organisms and require time to populate at levels in or on the target pest to deliver the best efficacy. Depending upon the biocontrol product, this can take a few minutes or up to 72 hours for control to be realized, says Mike Allan, Certis USA Vice President, North America.

Allan adds that understanding the mode of action and how, when, and where biocontrols should be applied is essential to maximize success from a biocontrol application.

3. Mixing Product InadequatelyMake sure the dispersal product you use for biocontrol application has the proper agitation capabilities to keep a product mixed well, or you will get uneven introduction. Also, nematodes and other microorganisms applied in water require oxygen to survive. You must take precautions with stock and tank solutions to provide adequate aeration during the application process. And dont forget about tank mix compatibility. Not all biocontrols can be tank mixed, so its prudent to familiarize yourself with the compatibility information for the specific products you plan to use.

Precision Biocontrol Application Via Sensor Technology on the Horizon

Biocontrol application devices have progressed from traditional hand-dispersal methods to simple handheld blowers, fully automatic blowing devices, tractor- and rail-mounted devices, and high-tech drones. Meanwhile, there have been many advancements in monitoring or scouting systems that track pests, weeds, and disease.

Sensing technologies are the perfect fit for biologicals because these products work best when applied preventatively at early stages of disease or before pest pressure rockets out of control.

The ability to identify pest, weed, and disease pressure with sensing technology takes away a lot of the guesswork when scouting a crop where timing and weather play a big factor in the success for both biologicals and conventional control products, Allan says.

In the future, a combination of application devices with monitoring or scouting systems technologies could be the key to precision delivery of biocontrols. Its just a matter of time before the technology is available for biocontrol application.

The scouting programs are making pest pressures visible, and when linked with the application devices, its theoretically possible to apply what is needed, where it is needed, El-Aaidi says. To do this automatically is still under development; however, farmers are already making applications in line with this. For example, they drive the tractor at half the speed in hot spots, thus doubling the introduction rates with a Koppert rotobug in those areas. In the same way, drone flight patterns can be changed based on the pressure.

4 Steps to Vet Biocontrol Application DevicesThere is a lot that can go wrong with the application of beneficials. So before you start using dispersal devices for biocontrol application, El-Aaidi suggests you do the following:

Janeen Wright is Editor for Greenhouse Grower. You can email her at [emailprotected] See all author stories here.

Read the original post:
3 Biocontrol Application Mistakes to Avoid in the Greenhouse - Greenhouse Grower

Manufactured Homes and Mobile Homes Market: Overview

The drive for Manufactured Homes and Mobile Homes market stems from the traction that affordable homes have gathered in worldwide populations. The growing popularity of prefabricated homes is a key trend that has bolstered the expansion of the Manufactured Homes and Mobile Homes market. Manufactured, modular, and mobile homes all are different terms, technically. The key differentiating parameters are design and construction; body and frame requirements; thermal protection; plumbing and electrical fire safety; and energy efficiency.

The contours of the global manufactured homes, modular homes, and mobile market has witnessed the rise of site-built homes that are made to comply to regional, local, and national regulations and building codes. One such code is Federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act in the U.S. Key application areas are commercial and residential sectors.

The drive for affordable housing for people who need to move frequently has propelled the demand of manufactured and mobile homes. The increasing trend of making modular and manufactured homes customized has spurred growth in the Manufactured Homes and Mobile Homes market. Modular homes are especially attractive due to the fact that they produce less waste since they are made in climate controlled home building facilities. The key advantages underpinning the popularity are energy savings, shorter build times, and robust build.

Advances being made in safety standards are boosting the growth potential for businesses in the Manufactured Homes and Mobile Homes market. These homes also reduce weather-related delays.

Are you a start-up willing to make it big in business?Grab an exclusive PDF Brochure for this report

Companies in the Manufactured Homes and Mobile Homes market are aiming to offer home buyers a mix of site-built and off-site homes. Most players are expected to gain a foothold by adopting state-of-the-art design and home building technologies. Several players are fervently meeting the needs of strength and durability of manufactured homes by using quality materials. Top players are cautious of meeting all local and regional housing building codes. They are employing trained craftsmen also.

Several players in the Manufactured Homes and Mobile Homes market are attracting prospective dwellers with cost-efficient solutions. They are keen on ensuring that all stages of offs-site building process is closely monitored. Top players are leveraging their technical expertise to customize the homes to meet the changing demands of consumers, particularly in relation to flooring, cabinetry, and exterior finish.

Read the rest here:
Impact Of Covid-19 Outbreak On Manufactured Homes and Mobile Homes Market - Bulletin Line

Is it unrealistic, in the shortening days of a divisive election year, to expect the two parties to take time out of their packed schedules to address the affordable housing crisis? Perhaps, but there has already been progress toward action on housing in 2020.

For example, the Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) Act (H.R. 4351), introduced by Reps. Denny HeckDennis (Denny) Lynn HeckExclusive: Guccifer 2.0 hacked memos expand on Pennsylvania House races Heck enjoys second political wind Incoming lawmaker feeling a bit overwhelmed MORE (D-Wash.) and Trey HollingsworthJoseph (Trey) Albert HollingsworthWill Congress make a significant move on housing affordability? Overnight Health Care: Trump pressure on health agencies risks undermining public trust | Top FDA spokeswoman ousted after 11 days OVERNIGHT ENERGY: 21 states sue White House over rollback of bedrock environmental law | Administration faces rough week in court | Trump hits Biden on climate at convention MORE (R-Ind.), passed the House by a voice vote in March. Senate consideration of the bill, or a serious effort by that chamber to constructively address artificially high housing costs, would send a message of unified congressional support for urgently needed investment in Americas housing stock.

There is a growing left-right consensus on housing affordability: Overregulation is the chief barrier to affordable, unsubsidized housing within reach of working families. Protecting the right to build on ones own land is the solution, and could help get us to the point where direct government assistance is only needed by families with little or no income.

Congress, of course, has neither the desire nor the authority to take over local zoning powers. But Washington has long influenced housing market regulation in many ways, through innovation, vocal leadership and financial incentives. The Department of Commercepromoted restrictive zoningaround the country in 1924. Theearly Federal Housing Administration subsidized low-density regulationsthat favored expensive suburban-style planning (not to mention imposing strict racial segregation).

Today, Congress should take leadership to promote more worthy ideals and elevate best practices from around the country. Local leaders should see clearly that their national representatives are on the side of inclusive, market-led housing construction. Such an effort will require more two-way communication with federally-funded cities, which must use federal grants responsibly. Given the central role of zoning in local policy, communities receiving Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds must at least take stock of their regulatory apparatus (as the YIMBY Act would require).

Each party now appears to recognize a vital ideal more commonly associated with the other side. For Democrats, this means affirming the leading role of markets in delivering housing affordability. They can draw inspiration from the Austin suburbs, where legal scholarRobert Ellickson foundthat the majority of developable tracts are zoned to allow small-lot single family houses or multifamily homes. Those local choices open opportunities to Texans of diverse income levels and facilitate integration as the Austin economy booms.

Republicans, for their part, have too often ignored housing policy altogether. They are beginning to take a symbolic stand on the content of local decisions and let locally elected Republicans know that there are some things that blue cities get right. Buffalo, New York, for example,facilitated reinvestmentin its time-worn downtown byremoving parking minimumsand making it simpler to repurpose old buildings. That policy innovation wouldbe applicableto commercial spaces left vacant by the current recession.

The YIMBY Act does go beyond expressing the sense of Congress that inclusive, market-led housing investment is good for America. The language of the bill requires each HUD grantee which includes all cities of at least 50,000 people, plus some counties and smaller cities to report on whether or not they have adopted each of 22 policies, such as allowing manufactured housing and reducing parking minimums. The new requirement is likely to be grafted into anexisting online portal. Municipalities can also report that they plan to adopt a policy or that it is inapplicable.

It is fair to criticize the YIMBY Act for failing to address the real problems with HUDs grants. For example, the funding formula for Community Development Block Grants isout of syncwith the programs priorities and has been untouched since 1977. A more ambitious reform would update funding formulae and withdraw HUDs support from communities that do not share its goals.

Instead, Congress is following the business adage, You get what you measure. Decades of interaction with HUD have attuned local officials to some concerns. Many existing reporting requirements for HUD funding are on activities, such as on environmental protections and neighborhood input,known to discourage investment. By contrast, HUD has no existing requirement that communities consider or accommodate potential future residents, the vibrancy of the local economy or local fiscal sustainability, all of which are considerations that lean toward reinvestment. The YIMBY Act puts a little of HUDs weight but perhaps not enough on the pro-investment side of the scales.

Congress is taking seriously HUDs role as a source of information and ideas for local governments. Adding reporting on property rights protections for housing construction is likely, at the margin, to encourage grantees to give greater consideration to the ways they can enable reinvestment by expanding and protecting property rights.

Salim Furthis a senior research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project with theMercatusCenter at George Mason University.

Here is the original post:
Will Congress make a significant move on housing affordability? - The Hill

1. Why Manufactured Housing Is the New Affordable Housing (Commercial Property Executive) - August 24"Despite the zoning challenges, manufactured housing offers the only affordable detached housing option in the U.S."

2. Many Companies Planned to Reopen Offices After Labor Day. With Coronavirus Still Around, Theyre Rethinking That. (WSJ) - August 23"Companies had hoped to bring homebound workforces back in September, but employee outcry and fears over outbreaks have led bosses to change course."

3. Economic Data Points to Pause in Recovery as Aid Programs Expire (New York Times) - August 21"The economys rebound showed signs of stagnating. Then enhanced unemployment benefits and a small-business loan program expired."

4. Hotel Occupancy Likely To Dip By 29% Over Next Year (Globe St) - August 21"A new study from Magid and Howarth HTL estimates the losses to the hospitality industry from the coronavirus pandemic at $75 billion."

5. An Unprecedented Effort to Stop the Coronavirus in Nursing Homes (New York Times) - August 20"Researchers are testing an experimental drug to halt sudden outbreaks. The trial may bring a new type of treatment for the virus."

6. From Illicit To Essential: Pandemic Helping Cannabis Industry Gain Firmer Footing (Bisnow) - August 19"When the economy went into a steep decline last spring, many cannabis retailers and growers said their industry was at risk. The federal prohibition on cannabis already made it difficult to raise needed capital, and with millions of jobs evaporating, legal sales could also crater, leading risk-averse investors to back off even further."

7. Survey: More Than 70% Of CRE Firms Have Seen Their Revenues Drop Significantly During The Pandemic (Bisnow) - August 17"In early March, Bisnow surveyed hundreds of commercial real estate professionals to find out how the industry was responding to the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, 44% of survey respondents said the effects of the pandemic would be short-term, and that the market would rebound quickly, and only 37% of respondents told Bisnow the pandemic had directly affected their business."

Read more here:
7 must reads for the AEC industry today: August 28, 2020 - Building Design + Construction

(Note: A good long video explaining the system can be seen via this Treehugger article)

Judging from my decades of life experience there is an iron-clad rule about every room in every house ever built: The electric outlets are in the wrong place.

Outlets are always, and I do mean always, blocked by furniture or too far from the floor lamp or get overloaded because its the only one I can find. Invariably I end up shifting everything around or living with more extension cords than Medusa had snakes on her head.

Heres an idea: Instead of moving lamps and furniture to suit the outlet, why cant we move the outlet to suit the room?

Thats one aspect of a system called Open-Built that New Hampshires Bensonwood Homes has been developing for years and incorporating into homes, including some built with components made in its Keene factory. The idea is to creates houses that last longer and perform better by designing them to be functionally flexible so they can change as the needs of inhabitants change (kids are born, people get old, family moves out, etc.) and as technology alters.

Its very much a niche idea in the U.S., although not in parts of Europe or Japan. Improvements in computer-aided design and CNC machinery are making it more feasible.

The Keene factory, company founder Tedd Benson says, can produce material for 300 buildings a year on an 8-hour day although he adds, were not up there yet.

Benson got his start with timber-frame construction and with Bensonwood Homes and subsidiary Unity Homes is well versed in sustainable and passive-house construction and design. The Open-Built concept is an extension of those ideas.

Outlets, under this program, can be easily moved because theyre built into a small section of non-weight-bearing walls along the floor that is covered with panels, sort of a vertical version of a dropped ceiling in an office. Open the panels and the wiring is accessible without messing with wallboard or insulation.

If the system was built with plug-and-play circuits that Benson is also developing, moving the outlet wont be much harder than setting up your new computer.

Being able to move outlets is a cool feature, but bigger disentanglements are more important, Benson said.

The inelegant term disentanglement refers to the idea that the structure of the house the shell shouldnt be tangled up with the things that make it work the infill because they exist in different timelines. A house frame and foundation can last a century or two but the design and technology of the pipes and wires and insulation and other components change much more quickly.

If those pipes and wires and insulation are all tangled with each other and with the shell, stuck around studs and joists and behind wallboard or siding, upgrading them is so expensive and complicated that it rarely happens.

Case in point: My house. Weve been there 30 years yet my wife and I have installed exactly one new set of switches and light sockets, resigning ourselves to all the others even when theyre not quite what wed like. And that installation happened only because our bedroom adjoins the attic so it was easy to run wires without ripping up the ceiling.

Then theres the Ethernet cable running down one hallway to a makeshift office because hiding it would be an enormous pain. As for changing the plumbing layout or increasing the insulation in the walls or running fiber-optic cables if that becomes the norm forget it.

Bensons approach is to avoid such locked-in layout from the start with computer-aided design and modular construction. He emphasizes that the idea is not original with him, pointing to well-known advocates like Stewart Brand and John Habraken, but it remains rare in the U.S.

Were rethinking the process and product of buildings so they can last longer and be more adaptable to peoples lives, said Benson. He talked about making a simple wiring upgrade himself, without having to hire people in other building trades: If theyre entangled, it would take five trades to accomplish the same thing.

Along with flexibility, he says, comes better performance, more efficient use of energy and more comfort for people living inside.

We know how to do it its actually not that hard. Residential buildings are really simple; they sit on the earth, dont go anywhere, dont make anything its actually pretty easy to build to a higher-performing standard, he said.

A key part of Open-Built is the construction of walls and other components in a factory to be assembled on site. This idea has been touted for as long as I can remember as a way to make better and cheaper homes but is relegated to the much-scorned category of low-end manufactured homes for reasons I dont quite understand.

Real houses, the thinking still goes, are stick-built meaning that almost everything, including all the framing, is cut and attached and constructed on location out in the rain and sun and wind, on workbenches or scaffolding or ladders, using portable power and staffing that can come from different places for different jobs.

Pushing against that inertia is part of the obstacles Benson faces.

Benson said Bensonwood and Unity together have about 115 employees, including the factory in Keene and two production departments in Walpole, one of which involves high-tech construction with manufactured timber, a topic Ive written about before.

Another obstacle Benson faces is a shortage of standards. You cant plug-and-play components if they dont fit together.

Benson says his firm is in a partnership with Saint-Gobain, a global materials company, to develop software to bring basis to standardization.

Weve got 40 different companies making parts for quote-unquote electrical systems and were still twisting with thumb and forefinger, splicing wires because they dont coordinate design.

The hoped-for result, he said, includes dimensional coordination so that when were making things that are parts of buildings there are some rules about where they go and how they fit. Things like stairs, bathrooms, windows, showerheads and, yes, outlets.

Theyre testing what is essentially a 2-foot grid for the building shell and a 3-inch grid for infill components, he says. Myriad designs can be built around these but, important, not an infinite number.

Instead of everything having to be cut and shaped on building sites by individuals with handheld tools, they can be assembled together, he said.

At a time when the need for housing is greater than ever before, a big rethink of how we construct our homes might be in order. If it means I can get rid of some extension cords at the same time, Im a fan.

Continued here:
An Ethernet cable runs down my hallway but it's not my fault - it's the house's fault! - Concord Monitor

Global Hormone Replacement Therapy Market: Overview

Hormone replacement therapy refers to the treatment of the patients with growth hormone deficiency due to conditions such as dwarfism or women nearing menopause, which requires replacement of hormones in the body whose levels have become low. Currently, a combination of drugs are used to treat hormone deficiencies, which are known to have better safety and efficacy parameter. Globally, the cases of hormone deficiency is escalating and a vast patient base are deprived of the proper treatment. These two factors are the primary drivers of the hormone replacement therapy market, which is projected for a healthy growth rate during the forecast period of 2016 to 2024.

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This report on global hormone replacement therapy market is a comprehensive analysis of all the factors that are expected to influence the growth rate in near future, presents a figurative estimation of the opportunities available, and profiles some of the key players currently active to give a clear picture of the competitive landscape. The global hormone replacement therapy market can be segmented on the basis of type of therapy, route of administration, and geography. By type of therapy, the market can be divided into estrogen replacement therapy, which remains most in-demand, and growth hormone replacement therapy. By route of administration, the market can be segmented into oral, parenteral, and transdermal. The oral route of administration is a sub-division of enteral administration and is considered the safest routes of drugs administration. Premarin and Estrace are some of the examples of oral administration route.

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Global Hormone Replacement Therapy Market: Trends and Opportunities

The rising incidences of hormonal imbalance disorders and increasing geriatric population as well as the neonatal population suffering from hormonal deficiency are the primary drivers of this market. Technological advancements in the field of drug delivery systems, presence of routinely monitored formulations, and increasing awareness among the consumers are others factors favoring the growth rate of the market. Additionally, the report also observes that menopausal females form a major chunk of the demand. Consequently, the rising population of female between the age group of 45 to 59, which thereby increases the range of menopausal window, is adding to the demand in the global hormone replacement therapy market. As per the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, nearly 6,000 women reach menopause on a daily basis, in the country of the U.S. alone.

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Aggressive direct selling campaigns by the key players to individuals aspiring quality life, development of new gel-based formulations, and increasing product availability of other factors that are expected to promote the market during the forecast period. Conversely, high cost of these therapies, some of the side-effects, shortage of products owing to weak pipeline are some of the factors expected to hinder the growth rate. The report also picks out some of the trends of the market, such as novel drug delivery mechanisms, mergers and acquisitions, and paradigm shift towards non-hormonal therapies.

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Global Hormone Replacement Therapy Market: Region-wise Outlook

The country-wide market of the U.S. continues to make North America the most lucrative region in the global hormone replacement therapy market. Increasing cases of hypothyroidism, hypogonadism, and other growth hormone deficiencies, coupled with swelling population of newborns are the key factors that is expected to augment the demand during the forecast period. The region of Asia Pacific is expected to experience surge of demand too, owing to reasons such increased awareness levels among the end users and improving healthcare infrastructure.

Companies Mentioned in the Research Report

Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, Abbott Laboratories, Novartis, Bayer Healthcare, Merck Serono, Eli Lilly, Roche, Mylan Laboratories, and Genentech.

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Hormone Replacement Therapy Market: Rising incidences of hormonal imbalance disorders is the primary drivers of this market - BioSpace